A new year, same stupidity...

It seems pretty apparent that humanity is nowhere near consciousness.  We just keep doing the same stupid violent mean ignorant stuff, day after day, year after year.

It is 2020 and we STILL have corrupt politicians using war to hide their corruption and to satisfy their greed.  Still!!  How can this be?  How can we not have learned that, for instance , a Donald Trump belongs in prison not in public office?  What will it take for the world to reject the Putins and the MBSs and the rest of the psychopathic greedy bloodthirsty monsters in human form?  Why do the Americans and the Saudis and the Israelis and the Russians etc. not rise up and cast down their psychopathic "leaders" and make the world better for everyone?  I don't get it.

I was raised by parents who taught their children that we are all here to learn and to contribute to making it better for everyone, not just for a few, not just for "our own kind" but for everyone.  My life's work has been to help people to be healthier in mind and body so they can be their best selves. I've done this as a psychotherapist, a bodyworker, a teacher, and a radio broadcaster.  Like most of us, my contributions are a mere drop in the very huge bucket that is humanity.  I really wonder if what I do is of any value at all.  Is it worth continuing to do it? I really wonder.

Humanity keeps doing the same stuff over and over and over and, apparently, not learning from our experiences.  Sure there are billions of individuals doing wonderful life affirming beautiful acts every day in our villages and cities and wherever, but we are still allowing the truly insane minority to run the show.  I can only see this as a kind of herd stupidity.  I don't know how to wake the herd out of its stupor.  It seems to me that we will probably continue to be stupid until the final mistake is made, which may have already been made actually.  Eventually, probably sooner than later, our stupidity will catch up with us and we will finally once and for all burn down our house while we're inside it.  That's already in process too.

The psychopaths we call "leaders" all share something, it's an insatiable lust for power.  If we allow them to proceed unchecked, with no limits, then they will destroy everything.  They can't help it.  Look at their personal lives...disastrous, disconnected, filled with conflict and alienation.  Trump, Putin, Netenyahu, Modi, Bolsonaro, MBS, etc. these men are all psychologically deformed.  They are not wholly human, they are missing important pieces like empathy and the ability to reflect on one's own behavior, the kinds of things we make sure we teach our children.

How have we allowed such people to take power?  Are we blind? Lazy?  Stupid?  Each and every one of us is complicit in some way.  I say this not to blame or shame but to ask that we all look at how we are complicit in allowing, in the US for instance a Trump to take power, and fix it.  That means we need to speak up when religious or political extremists push their agenda in our town, on our school board, wherever they appear. We need to not allow them to do what they are doing. That means non-co-operation but it  is going to mean more than that.  Passivity isn't going to cut it.

The herd is stupid, and that doesn't seem to be changing, so we are left with our own individual hands, and what we can do with them.

What are we doing here??

Tonight is the 40th Spiral Dance put on by the Reclaiming community, of which I am a part.  Thousands will gather to celebrate and honor the lives of the Beloved Dead during this time when, in many traditions, the veil is thin between the world of the living and the world of the dead.  We will be surrounded by altars for the directions, for the dead, for the living.  We will travel to the Isle of Apples, we will sing, and we will dance the spiral, looking into each others eyes as we share this moment of life.  It's a beautiful thing!

Do you ever ask yourself why you are here on Earth?  Do you ever ask yourself why here in this place where you are, and why now?

"Why" is a fun question because it has many layers.  The answers are many-layered too. 

What answers do you encounter, if any?

I've always been more interested in "How" and "What" because they are more functional questions, but "Why" is an invitation into one's own deep inner being, into the convoluted brain and all of the stories of who and what a person actually is.  We are human, we have bodies, we have minds and emotions, and we have awareness, but...what are we?  Does one's existence have meaning?  What is "meaning"?

Life as a human on Earth, in these times, depending on where one was born and into what kind of body, is a mixed bag of, well, everything.  There is joy, hopefully, and there is definitely suffering.  For some there is material plenty and for some there is not.  Some people experience a sense of purpose, direction, a path of being and doing that they embrace.  For some it is not so simple or easy.  We humans span the spectrum of possibilities.  And yet with all of that variety of experiences we have some things in common.  We all live in these bodies which have specific requirements.  We all have time...a little, a lot...but some time in which (most of us get to) breathe, feel, sense, think, exist. And in those moments or decades or whatever amount of time we have, we perceive ourselves in relationship with everything else in the lovely paradoxical dance of individualism and collectivism.

I invite myself and you to be conscious of all of this as we walk through the world.  Re-membering (making whole) our Selves and Each Other; that we are in this together as a whole lot of individuals, creating the world every day, every moment, through our actions, our emotions, our thoughts, and our awareness.

Wey Valley Radio

There's nothing like live radio, and there's nothing like community radio!  It was a real treat for me to get to visit Wey Valley Radio in Alton Hants, UK.  Community radio is a labor of love, wherever you find it, bringing live music, local news, and fostering that feeling of community connection that is so vital to humans.

Tobiah, my friend and host here in the UK, was invited to be on Acoustic Café Radio at Wey Valley Radio 101.1 FM.  Along with the wonderful Colette O'Leary on accordion, and with fellow musical guest on the show DiElle.  The songs reflected the loving hearts of the musicians.  It was very special. Host Brian Player facilitated a wonderful 2 hours of music and conversation.  You can listen to the recording here.

If you are looking for real music, real information, brought to you by non-corporate people, find your local community radio station, and if you can't find one, start one!

Tobiah and Colette

Brian

DiElle

I love working in radio, and as always, like to acknowledge the person who mentored me in radio, Greg Hooker, one of the best radio hosts, and a deeply decent human.

This afternoon at Meadow End...

Visiting friends Tobiah and Steven, looking forward to Tobiah's concert tomorrow at St. Georges Church in Trotten.  The concert celebrates Tobiah's new record Are We Angels, which I hope you will listen to, and even buy!  It will feed your heart and soul, I promise!

I'm sitting in the breakfast nook with a cup of tea, while Tob, Simon Callow, Colete O'Leary, and Rowan Piggott (soon to arrive) are rehearsing. Sarah Miles just came by to say hello; Academy Award winning actress and brilliant actor, a neighbor, she's been a guest on Paradigms.

This morning I read 3/4 of the new book Buffy Sainte-Marie The Authorized Biography by Andrea Warner and discovered that my favorite of her songs, Starwalker, is her favorite too.  I listened to it over and over driving across Canada in 2005 during my grief travels.  If you have a chance to listen to the song at the link above, do, and do read the book! Buffy is one of my great inspirations.  I had the honor of an interview with Buffy in 2009, and am hoping to talk with her again this year.

You know how sometimes you encounter someone and you connect deeply with ease?  That's how this friendship is. Tobiah and I have been friends via internet and phone since she was first on Paradigms in 2010, introduced by Will McCoy, The Rhythm Rancher, who is himself an amazing musician and was a guest on Paradigms in 2010.  Well, we finally met in person 2 days ago at Heathrow when she and Steven picked me up.  When Tobiah released her new album and scheduled this concert we both decided it was time for me to visit, and so, here I am. 

I am listening to the rehearsal, and as much as I want to sing along I am keeping quiet.  I know these songs and love them.  I've listened to them all countless times, but to hear them being sung in the next room...well you can't beat that with a stick!

Music is the healer, music is the healing...if we listen to beautiful music with messages of love and care and tenderness, it can help heal our wounds. Even the most broken damaged person who has committed the most despicable acts can find healing if the seek it.

Random musings in early 2019...

Some people find treasures when they go to the sea; jewelry, shells, sponges...all in the sand.  It’s a talent.

When I go to the sea I find moments of transcendence.  The water on the sand.  The light in the water.  The sound that never stops and is always soothing.  The sensation of ebb and flow that comes and goes after immersion. The smell.  The sensations of water and sun on skin. These are my treasures.

-----

I like material comfort as much as the next person.  I appreciate beauty with an aesthetic that has been developed with intention. But the physical world is not what my sights are ultimately set upon.  

The images of the cosmos that we have, thanks to the technology we call science, has provided us with an easy conceptualization of what is beyond Earth’s thin layer of atmosphere. I focus on these images in my mind, often, and as part of describing to myself and contemplating where and what I am in a meditative experience.  I see myself sitting or whatever, the room, the building, the locale...always moving out (up?) seeing concentric spheres of geography, if you will, until I see the planet, the solar system, the galaxy...and out and out...all that great NASA Star Trek imagery informing images of space and the cosmos.  I find comfort in this.

Then gradually coming back, eventually returning my awareness to this body in this place.

-----

In the morning when I awaken I am still and peaceful...for a moment.  Then I feel tension rising in my body and my mind remembers where I am and what is in front of me and then I feel anxious, and a desire to burrow back into sleep and dreams, and stillness and peace.  No such luck though. I know that I will get up, so I do...and the anxiety diminishes as I move into activity. But always this sense of...like I am wearing a garment that is just a little too small.

Leaving 2018 behind

This has been a tiring year.  Every day more nonsense and nazification in Washington DC. It has been an ongoing exercise in coping with lies, cruelty, and destructiveness.  It's tiresome.

Every week I produce 90 minutes of original audio content.  It's good stuff, I respect the material, however it means always being on a production schedule with all that entails and that's tiring too.

One of the challenges I accepted during 2018 was to be less a bearer of bad news, and to be more a bearer of positivity.  That worked out pretty well. 

The work I do, the audio programs, are intended to inspire, and they do, from what people tell me.  I'm glad they do.  That's definitely part of my deal here on Earth, to offer good stuff to the world.  I chose this, I love it, and I'm glad I'm doing it.

Underneath all of that, deep down, all there is inside me is love of nature and animals, and a feeling of the primordial Earth...that's really all. The rest is fleeting.

Approaching Solstice...

This year the darkness is really calling me.  Since the end of October, Samhain, I've felt the pull.  The dreamtime calls.  Even the waking dreamtime is vivid, both with reflection and re-vision-ing.

I find myself going over residue from events, relationships, experiences, and gently massaging that stuff as it dissipates, kind of like when something is sticky and hardened on the floor, it takes some time and attention to get it cleaned up, and that act of cleaning can be very zen.

I read an article recently about how certain Buddhist monks end their lives by basically dissolving into light, (I am shorthanding this) and that the way this is done is to think nothing but loving thoughts for the rest of one's life.  I jokingly have said that "Oh well, that's not me!" but the truth is, while I do not only have loving thoughts, I mostly have loving thoughts, and sometimes thoughts that seem not loving are, in fact, motivated by love.  Political anger, for instance, is motivated by the love of justice.

I'm looking at this revisiting of past remnants as part of this business of being a more loving person.  Imagine (I'm sure you can!) having some emotional residue left from a relationship you had as a teenager...a friend, a peer, not necessarily a partner even...and just shining love on that situation and watch as the residue floats away.

Perhaps we humans are not as far from being our best as the worst among us make it seem.

Love and Hate in Brooklyn

People ask me "how are you?" and my answer lately is...I am both horrified and ecstatic. I am horrified to see the rising fascism around the world, including here in the US. I am also moved deeply by the responses to the horror. There is WAY more love than there is hate. There are WAY more people who want a peaceful society than there are who want violence and bigotry.

My own response to all this pendulates between rage and fear, and complete trust in the universe...and everything in between.

One thing I am choosing to act upon is the belief that I cannot fix the whole, me must do that collectively...but individually I can continue to do what I do which is to bring messages of inspiration and empowerment to people.

A very close friend just emailed me. The synagogue in his neighborhood in Brooklyn NY just experienced a racist graffiti attack, and the neighborhood is rallying with love and support. I am horrified that my friends children live near someone who is so hateful, and I am filled with love for my friend and his community.