It's Just Another Day...

 I awoke feeling the weight of the world today, seeing all the hate being stirred up in the US by religious extremists against transgender people.  I understand the machinations of cults, and I understand how republican political extremists use religion to manipulate folks who are susceptible.  We have seen in Germany and Rwanda and elsewhere, how those seeking control will demonize a group and get their followers to hate and harm those they've demonized. This is what's happening with transgender people in the United States. The Christian "Right" has chosen trans folk to demonize.  Social media is rife with religious extremists, not only Christians but also extremist Jews and Muslims, broadcasting their fear and hate.  It's very sad and misguided, and eventually, as the "good Germans" did, most of them will come to regret their participation in the Republican death and hate cult, but not until they have caused great harm and suffering. Make no mistake about it, they are causing harm and suffering now.

I do not care what people believe. I care how they behave.  If you don't understand transgenderism, that is fine.  If you disagree with the science and psychology, so be it.  Please, however, do not make other people's lives more difficult because of your beliefs and feelings.  Be kind, even when you don't agree or understand.  

A Traveling Person

One of the things I do with this life I have been given is to travel. I am fortunate to be able to do so! Part of my intention, in all I experience, is to make my experiences available to others so they might find some value for themselves.

On May 9 I flew to England for a month.  I went to visit friends, and to meet up with old friends from Vermont to hike Hadrian's Wall, an 80+ mile trail which runs from one side of the island to the other near the Scottish border.  I attended a friend's concert, I met new friends, I did some bodywork happy to see that I still "have it," I received some excellent bodywork, saw great art (the Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit), ate good food, drank lots of cider, and felt the strong connection I have with that land.  I have 0% Celtic genetics in this body but 100% spiritual connection to the Earth in that place.  I grew up in New England, and if you look at the Pangea maps (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGdPqpzYD4o) you see that New England and the British Isles were all once part of the same land map adjacent to each other,  which may be part of it.  I recognize the flora and fauna as familiar.

Something I notice traveling is how easy it is to share kindness, whether with friends or the person serving in a pub or café or the person ringing up groceries in the store.  This is not news to me. Traveling across Canada and the US in the early 2000s I found the same thing.  Most people are available for a smile and a friendly word, if not more.  With all of the political sturm and drang, and the active efforts by political agents to polarize We The People, I hope this is not lost!  Nowadays politics and religion serve more to divide us than to bring us together, and more's the shame.

Now I am back in Jamaica.  It's hot and green.  The politics here are as corrupt as they are anywhere, with the politicians recently giving themselves a 200% raise while giving teachers 2% and police 5%. 

My vision, and I thank my parents for their contribution to this, is for humanity to collectively reject violence, to reject the power-over paradigm and blossom into co-operation and kindness.  We can do it!  I know we can.  I wonder if we will.

This week's episode of Paradigms focuses on a specific modality of healing music coming from African traditions, infused with some modern instruments and multi-cultural foundations.  I hope you'll check it out at Paradigms.Life.  The episode speaks to our individual healing needs and possibilities, which of course informs the well-being of the whole of humanity.  Made with love.

Seeing from a Distance

Watching the US from abroad for nearly half a year now, it really looks like things are about to implode.  The radical right continues to make inroads, promoting hate and fear, lying about everything, pushing the christofascist agenda.  These things have a cycle.  I don't know if/how it can be rolled back.  It sure looks like karma to me.  The genocide against the native people, the enslavement of Africans, building a nation on that foundation, how can it not eventually turn in on itself?

 

There are so many people working hard to stave off the violence and ecocide.  That's beautiful.  Resistance to fascism has always required bravery and commitment. We saw it in WWII.  We've seen it in Chile.  We saw it not succeed in Nicaragua, Venezuela.  We see the antifascist movement in Spain courageously pushing forward.

Humanity as a whole has yet to awaken to what we are and how good it could be for everyone.  As long as the greed and fear of the minority (of underdeveloped people) thrives, this will continue.  I am just here to say that we have choices.  Each and every one of us can choose who and what we are in the world.  Every single day we each choose, whether we do it consciously or not.  So, with love, I say...choose deliberately what you are in this world, because you matter, your choices and actions matter!  💕‎

Happy Birthday!

Today I am 63 years old, 63 times around the sun in this body. I don't make a big deal about my birthday but the truth is I really love my birthday, I always have.  When I was small it was always a special day.  My mother made it so. So today I miss my mother, gone almost 19 years.

Like every other day I start out by feeling the grief that punctuates everything these days; grief over the endless losses that are part of life, but mostly the waste and cruelty perpetrated by humans. Watching the United States slip into christofascist theocracy is like watching a horror show, only it's real.  Women are dying due to the rollback of reproductive rights. Trans kids are committing suicide. School children live in daily fear for their lives, and nearly every day a fresh batch of them are murdered. And let me tell you, as a therapist who works with teens, I hear about their fear, I see how it damages our beautiful young people to know they could be gunned down any day at their school. This is real.

We're not supposed to point fingers and blame, but I am pointing and blaming.  The perpetrators of this crime against humanity, this hateful religious fanaticism is brought to us by Christianity.  The cult of Christianity is bent on dominating all life, controlling everyone and everything.  It is a pathological ideology being promulgated by sociopaths who only value having power over others.

I hope people rise up and cast these nazis down.  They deserve to be crushed, not literally but figuratively.  The churches should be destroyed.  Not with violence, but by being repurposed. They are not houses of worship any longer, they are now headquarters for hate groups. They are organizing centers for actual nazis. This must not be allowed.

Nazis?  really?  Where are the death camps, you ask.  Understand, Hitler didn't start with death camps.  He built up to them.  That is what's happening in the US.  Already politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene have called for the rounding up of trans people.  We see the rollback to Jim Crow happening in states like Florida and Tennessee.  We see Republican politicians proposing the death penalty for women who have abortions and those who aid them.

How far will this be allowed to go?  When I say "allowed" I mean that everyone who obeys a christofascist judge or rule is actually allowing this.  Everyone must resist.  Ignore the rulings and laws passed by christofascists.  Do it blatantly, loudly, and often. That means you, and me, and everyone we know.  So spread the word, it is time to defy them at every turn. Take action!  Your life may depend on it, surely your liberty does.