Celebrate Each Day

Each day is unique. Keep that in mind.

We humans see patterns and it is all too easy to fall into cyclic thinking. Monday starts the work week, Friday signals the coming weekend. Saturday is party day. Sunday is rest up for Monday day. Well, it used to be that way. Now, folks work so many different days and hours that what was the norm is no longer normal, but most everyone has some kind of routine to their week.

Then, we have the cycle of holidays and we sort of view the World in those terms. Soon, we will have Memorial Day, although almost no one remembers its original meaning. When I worked at a school, it was, "hooray, school's almost out" day. But, you get my drift.

There is nothing wrong with this cyclic view, unless it becomes a trap, a routine. Then, even Christmas can become just a half boring routine we go through each year. Still, it is human to measure time this way.

But, and this is sometimes hard to do, if you can view each day as unique, and they really are, then you have cause to celebrate each day. Tomorrow is Wednesday, and those of you working and old fashioned work week may want to say, "oh boy, hump day, weekends almost here." Fair enough, but since you do that every week, it's not much cause for celebration.

Suppose instead, that you say, "wow, this is a new day, unlike any other. Then, you have given yourself cause to celebrate and break old patterns. Since you are in a new day, no longer thinking of it as just another Wednesday, you are free to do something totally 'unWednesdayish." Maybe take your partner out to dinner, instead of waiting until Friday, or get together with friends instead of waiting until Saturday. Maybe visit a place of worship instead of putting it off until Sunday.

Think, just by changing the way ypu think, and turning each day into a celebration, you are on the way to changing your life.

Easter

I had no intention of writing about the just passed Easter holiday until I saw a little item flash across the bottom of the screen while watching the news. Americans, on average, spent $680 on Easter. Why?

In the first place, how many eggs and jelly beans can you eat? For sure, it's not my money and folks can spend what they earn however they want, but to spend like that on this particular holiday is kind of missing the point.

Easter is about renewal. The old, pagan traditions of Spring celebrations (the eggs and such) are kept alive and, of course, the Christian idea of the Resurrection  is celebrated. Whether you believe in an actual body being resurrected or a spiritual resurrection is not important, the day should at least be remembered as the birth of a new way of viewing our relationship with our Creator. I do not like the over commercialization of Spiritual holidays.

What was the Resurrection? Was it physical or spiritual? I have no idea. I wasn't there and the accounts from the 4 Gospels are very contradictory. Toss in the Gnostic versions and the Moslem account and the writings from the Talmud and it becomes obvious that we will never know for sure, unless we get busy on making a time machine and that doesn't seem to be in anyone's budget.

I am sure, however, that something extraordinary happened. Christianity spread so very quickly that something must have happened in the life and death of Yeshua, the one we call Jesus, that shook people and forced them to wake up and view life in a new manner. At the time the Gospels were written, there would still have been folks alive who witnessed the events. While memory fails over time, and details get blurred, if nothing of the sort had happened, those people would have spoken up/ That's just human nature.

Any way you look at it, show some respect. I am all for folks having fun and Easter should be a celebration, but it really is not about who gets the biggest chocolate bunny ar who has the most expensive Easter outfit.

War

Not to get all melodramatic, but the drums of war are pounding yet again, and these are pretty big drums. I am not a pacifist. I fully believe that we have a right to self defense and the defense of friends and family. If attacked directly, I believe the Nation should act defensively. But, that is not what we are doing. In Syria, the issue is in part control of oil ports. In N. Korea, it is the manipulation of China. Yes, kids were gassed in Syria and that is nightmarish, but we have conducted air strikes all over the Mid East that, by our own admission, have killed many thousands of civilians, so we have no moral high ground. Yes, N/ Korea developed Nukes. So did England, Russia, France, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan and we did not engage in this stupid game od nuclear chicken with the,.

I am in no way defending Assad or the weird kid in N. Korea. They are monstrous, but, again, we have supported and continue to support, many monsters (just look at our good buddies the Saudis). Again, we have no moral high ground.

The real reason these threats are flying is simple. The leaders of all of these Nations, ours included, are sick, sick with a lust for power and are trying to prove who is the baddest guy on the planet. I believe the Hindus call this being stuck at the third chakra (or the second. O always get them mixed up and my apologies to any Hindus). We must at least try to get a grip on this sick, evil despotism or one day soon, we may all be glowing in the dark and this lovely Planet will be devastated.

Jesus said that if struck, we should turn the other cheek. Ay least that way, we can think and give our assailant a chance to reconsider. We have not even been struck yet. Every side in these conflicts need to slow down and back off. If Putin and Trump and the Iranian Ayatollah and Netanyahu and the Korean Kid want to fight, let the WWE set up a steel cage match, charge as pay per view and donate the profits to charity. It would be quite a show and maybe, when they see how idiotic and childish they look, we can all sit down and talk,

Stop Clinging

I have been a tad cranky of late. I find that I am losing patience with those who try to remain anchored to the past. Thi is especially true regarding spiritual matters.

The Universe, God's Creation, is in a constant state of change. We humans change daily as we learn more and more. Yet, some, no, many, of us wish to remain tied to relics of beliefs.

Like it or not, we are not desert nomads herding sheep and fighting both empires seeking territory and neighbors we can't seem to get along with. We have gone too far and learned to much to continue those patterns of thought. No one in their right mind wants to live by Levitical law (by the way, that is all sharia law is).

Christians speak of 'The Blood of the Lamb' and the sacrificial atonement that Jesus brought. They don't understand that we now know that darn near every culture on Earth has practiced blood rights and scapegoating and it is fairly obvious that the desired results have never been found.

Christians speak of the Virgin Birth, yet we now know that the earliest Christians believed no such thing and that the entire concept is the result of a mistaken translation (the into Greek from the Hebrew word that really just means young girl). We also now that there was nor census at the time of Jesus' birth ( there was one earlier and each Jew was not required to go to the city of his birth) and no killing of babies by Herod. Oh, and Jesus was not from Nazareth because, at his time, there was no Nazareth (it shows up about the 2nd Century.

As far as older religions go, we have figured out, through historical and ancheological investigations, that they were, in ancient times, a mixed up mess, with each influencing and being absorbed by others.

India's Hinduism is a blend of the local Godess belief mixed with the Indo-aryan Vedic religions. Judaism imported beliefs from Egypt, Babylon and especially from Persia Zoroasterianism. Christianity stole from every indiginous belief system it came across, from the Greek neo-platonism to the Afro-Cuban systems of Voodoo.

The point is, we now know that all, and I mean all religions are a hodge-podge of beliefs, yet we continue to insist that ours, no matter where you are, is the right one. Add into that the fact that many beilefs have been shattered by scientific knowledge, and we have no basis for clinging so tightly to our religious beliefs (does any one still think that God stopped the Sun for Joshua. Oh, by the way, Jericho was rubble long before Joshua sounded the trumpet).

Now, we should not throw out these traditions completely. If we view them as mythology, they show deep truths about human psychology. And, especially in the Western Christian system ( which also contains elements from Greek, Roman, Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers), we are given a profoundly human system of workable, ethical guidelines. But, we must, if man is to continue, stop all forms, repeat, all forms, of literal belief in any religious dogma.

 

Support Small Churches and other Places of Worship

I have made it clear that I am not religiously dogmatic. I really don't care as much about what folks believe as what they do. I really don't care a lot if folks go to Church at all. Some find it a pleasant thing to do. Some get more spiritual charge out of sitting alone outside or hanging out with friends and family.

But, if you do wish to go to a church, mosque, temple, or whatever do yourself a favor and avoid the big gatherings. In spiritual matters, small is often better.

I have been to mega-churches and found them lacking. There are just too many people crammed in together, too mush loose, unfocused energy. And, of course, too much of a big business vibe. Believe me, business is the operative word.

Small churches, and I am going to assume that the same holds for temples, mosques, etc., have a close, warm feeling. Folks have time and space to get to know each other. The Ministers get to know the parishioners. You can take time after the Services to chat, instead of trying to get to your car to beat the traffic.

There are some things in this life that are best when small and quiet.

Bees

Today's blog will be short. It was recently announced that a species of bees has been declared endangered. It has long been acknowledged that many types of bees are dying at an alarming rate. Bees are prolific pollinators. Without them, our ability to produce edible crops will be very seriously hampered. Food prices will skyrocket and famine will develop. There is no way to continue ignoring this severe problem.

I am asking any and every one who reads this blog, no matter what your specific beliefs, to pray for guidance in efforts to figure a solution to this problem. quickly. I am not by nature an alarmist, but this must be solved.
And while your at it, say a prayer for bees. We owe the little guys at least that much.

Stories We Tell Ourselves

We humans experience the World fairly directly through our senses. Then, our brains go to work, and they do a pretty decent job of interpreting those impressions. But, there is a problem.

To put things in a woefully simple way, our right brain grasps a somewhat whole view of matters, placing the perceptions in time and space and interpreting them in terms of shapes and relationships.Then, the left brain steps in and applies logic to the perceptions, fits them neatly into place and give labels, names to them. This is vital if we are to work and communicate with other people, but their is a flaw. That left brain simply does not like to be quiet.

Our brain has a weird need to not just describe, but to make up stories, long detailed stories, about everything. It just will not stop doing that. It provides a useful narrative to our lives, a sense of continuity, of unity, but does not stop there. If presented with something beyond its immediate comprehension, it will begin making up outlandish tales with little basis.

Now, this can be grand fun. I love storytelling. And, in the course of spinning those yarns, it may be finding bits of truth and putting them in a coherent framework. But, the story is not the truth. Herein lies the conflict between spirituality and religion. Spiritual experiences are difficult, almost impossible, to put into words, yet our left brain cannot tolerate such vagueness, so it starts putting the experience into story form. The story gets told, passed along, and before you know it, a Holy Text is developed. At that point, along comes theologians and priests who know that folks long for spiritual experience but, understanding that such experiences are liberating, substitute the Text for the experience. They say, 'Believe the Text and you need not go through all the bother of experiencing yourself."

One problem: the Text will provide a watered down version in words of something that cannot be put into words. The authorities deny you the experience because, when you have it, you no longer need them. They certainly do not want to lose income and power, so the declare any legitimate spiritual experience as dangerous and heretical.

Holy Texts have their uses. They can and should function as sign posts showing the way to experience, but they are not the experience. An old Hindu proverb says that 'painted cakes do not satisfy hunger.'