Here we are at Halloween, a beautifully dark fall evening. What began as a Celtic holiday, Samhain, for remembering our dead and wishing them well on their journey into the next world, is also celebrated by Mexicans as The Day of the Dead. Two different cultures, half a world apart, yet at the heart of the holiday is exactly the same sentiment.
There is another holiday specifically for remembering those killed in war, but this one is a time to say farewell to anyone we know who died this year. We speak our appreciation for those who we remember and acknowledge that part of the cycle of life, the ending of this physical reality as we know it.
This weekend also brings daylight savings time, so we set our clock back and enjoy the darkness. Tomorrow will also be a night at the symphony for music that summons richness and the orchestration of many different instruments, many different sounds into one coordinated sequence of movements celebrating harmony and beauty.
It is fun watching all the little kids in their costumes continuing the tradition, even though they do not know yet the roots of the traditions they follow, that of the soul cakes and the dumb supper. They celebrate the harvest of candy, and it is a great holiday for kids as a fun time to dress up and get treats from their neighbors.
Falling leaves signal the shift in seasons with more certainty every day, as less leaves are on the branches and more on the ground. We celebrate all that we have harvested this year as well, and we have some food on our shelves for the winter and we work and look toward the future, pulling a card for the year.
Spirits always dance on this fall holiday, and we dance with them.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Looking, Seeing
What would we do if we had every opportunity to reinvent ourselves? We do have these opportunities, but how many of us take them?
Every day is a new opportunity in which we learn to learn all over again. Tonight as I was looking over the major arcana of the Tarot, I appreciated them all over again and saw new things, gained new insights. Such is the power of the pack of pictures that we can lay out and enjoy time after time and still gain new insights.
Learning to learn about someone we know, someone we live with, we have the same opportunity to make every day new. The thing we must always see is that there is always another way to see. Our third eye opens our other eyes and sometimes our other eyes open our third eye.
Open your heart, open your eyes, open to open. What is it that you are noticing today for the first time, even though it is not the first time it has been available for your examination.
Every day is a new opportunity in which we learn to learn all over again. Tonight as I was looking over the major arcana of the Tarot, I appreciated them all over again and saw new things, gained new insights. Such is the power of the pack of pictures that we can lay out and enjoy time after time and still gain new insights.
Learning to learn about someone we know, someone we live with, we have the same opportunity to make every day new. The thing we must always see is that there is always another way to see. Our third eye opens our other eyes and sometimes our other eyes open our third eye.
Open your heart, open your eyes, open to open. What is it that you are noticing today for the first time, even though it is not the first time it has been available for your examination.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Actors and Our Favorite Roles
Consider the art of acting. People learn how to dress, act, think and speak like someone else, and since movies generally take months to film. They live inside the skin of this other entity they create and from the outside we see this other character, not the real person inside. A skilled actor can play many different roles, leaving us to admire what they have created, without revealing anything of themselves and their own personalities.
Recall Shakespeare's famous quote that "all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players."
All of us are actors, even though we may not realize it. Those of us who have never been onstage do not think of ourselves as actors, but there are many roles we play in a lifetime. Not only parent, child, husband, wife, athlete, student, lover, friend, competitor, mentor. Then there are the various guises of our careers. How many different parts have we played in how many different businesses? Do we not get inside the skin of someone else while we play these roles, then climb inside another skin when we take on another role?
Just as an actor has a favorite role he or she has played, don't we also have favorite roles we have played?
Is there any symbolic significance to our favorite actors and the roles they have played?
Recall Shakespeare's famous quote that "all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players."
All of us are actors, even though we may not realize it. Those of us who have never been onstage do not think of ourselves as actors, but there are many roles we play in a lifetime. Not only parent, child, husband, wife, athlete, student, lover, friend, competitor, mentor. Then there are the various guises of our careers. How many different parts have we played in how many different businesses? Do we not get inside the skin of someone else while we play these roles, then climb inside another skin when we take on another role?
Just as an actor has a favorite role he or she has played, don't we also have favorite roles we have played?
Is there any symbolic significance to our favorite actors and the roles they have played?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Pattern Recognition #4- No Such Thing as Sin
You have to step back a bit to see how it all works sometimes. Just like there are religions that teach that we are all born sinners and we need to be saved, because our whole lives are tainted not only by that sin, but also by all the other sins we commit. Of course, that is a very shrewd move, making people feel guilty and then simultaneously offering them the only route to salvation, through their organization, of course, which requires regular chunks of your income in order to help rescue you from sin.
How convenient!
On the other hand, if you do not believe in sin, but rather that people choose of their free will whether to act well or act badly, then we can live every day from joy and love, because we know we are free to choose. Those who choose well enjoy good relationships with others and success in life. Those who choose badly will eventually end up in trouble or in prison. Even if they appear to get away with something karma will catch up with them one way or another. If we consciously choose to love other people and get along with them, we will never have any guilt or anything to apologize for. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Where else do we see examples of this sort of manipulation in life?
How convenient!
On the other hand, if you do not believe in sin, but rather that people choose of their free will whether to act well or act badly, then we can live every day from joy and love, because we know we are free to choose. Those who choose well enjoy good relationships with others and success in life. Those who choose badly will eventually end up in trouble or in prison. Even if they appear to get away with something karma will catch up with them one way or another. If we consciously choose to love other people and get along with them, we will never have any guilt or anything to apologize for. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Where else do we see examples of this sort of manipulation in life?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Consumer Culture Consuming Us?
We frequently hear the concept that our culture is based on consumption. What does that really mean? What is the nature of consumer spending?
Although the questions sound obvious, a little reflection reveals more. For example, although it is obvious that when we go to stores and buy merchandise, that stimulates producers to create more, and when that happens, jobs are created. Those of us who have jobs have the purchasing power to go shopping, and we also have to money to do other things. Those are the consequences of our actions.
Insights from the current crisis are causing many people to rethink these patterns. One of the consequences of people scrambling to find the money to keep their homes from foreclosure is that there has been an explosion of yard sales. Suddenly, the focus of the goal is shifting priorities. All those furniture pieces, decorative items, toys and knicknacks are suddenly out in the yard available for whatever someone wants to pay for them. Yet not so long ago, people were scurrying around malls looking for things to fill their homes with. Last year's cherished purchase is just another piece of stuff outside waiting to be hauled away. No doubt many of those sellers wish now that they had the money they spent on those things.
This pattern has been evolving for a number of years where the average house has been getting bigger at exactly the same time as the average family has been getting smaller. As the houses grow in size, of course, they also grow in price. Just like auto makers have choked on their decision to focus on bigger and bigger cars, home builders and the banking industry have choked on their decision to focus on bigger and bigger houses.
People are now reevaluating what all this means. Suddenly a more modest sized house and a more modest sized car that also come with a more modest sized price seem like very smart choices. Those smaller houses are comfortable with less stuff in them. So what else would that money be spent on then, if we are buying less stuff to fill our oversized houses with?
Perhaps on education, for our selves or our family members. Maybe more on preventive health care and health maintenance. Maybe personal care like massages, body work, consulting with readers, counselors, mentors. Perhaps more on personal experiences like vacations, visits to sacred places, gyms, yoga studios, tai chi or martial arts training. Maybe more tickets for theatre and live music performances.
Consumption of tons of video games has contributed to a younger generation of people who are out of shape and more prone to problems like diabetes at a young age. Low tech consumption would have contributed to a more fit generation. Playing ball, but not necessarily organized participation, bicycling, walking and other simple things in greater measure make a difference in general fitness levels.
The race to always own the newest cell phone, the biggest TV, the newest whatever also means that you have to work more hours to pay for all that stuff. So not buying all that means you have more time to spend with other people.
What about employment? What if our brightest minds were in a competition to make the most efficient energy systems to power our grids with renewable sources instead of being devoted to developing a hundred more flavors of potato chips and cell phones with more gizmos and games? Money would still be spent and new jobs would be created, but with much more beneficial results.
Of course, we will always be making money and buying things because these exchanges are necessary to life. So what if instead of always tending to think that bigger is better, we made more conscious choices? We vote for what kind of world we want to create when we spend our money.
Although the questions sound obvious, a little reflection reveals more. For example, although it is obvious that when we go to stores and buy merchandise, that stimulates producers to create more, and when that happens, jobs are created. Those of us who have jobs have the purchasing power to go shopping, and we also have to money to do other things. Those are the consequences of our actions.
Insights from the current crisis are causing many people to rethink these patterns. One of the consequences of people scrambling to find the money to keep their homes from foreclosure is that there has been an explosion of yard sales. Suddenly, the focus of the goal is shifting priorities. All those furniture pieces, decorative items, toys and knicknacks are suddenly out in the yard available for whatever someone wants to pay for them. Yet not so long ago, people were scurrying around malls looking for things to fill their homes with. Last year's cherished purchase is just another piece of stuff outside waiting to be hauled away. No doubt many of those sellers wish now that they had the money they spent on those things.
This pattern has been evolving for a number of years where the average house has been getting bigger at exactly the same time as the average family has been getting smaller. As the houses grow in size, of course, they also grow in price. Just like auto makers have choked on their decision to focus on bigger and bigger cars, home builders and the banking industry have choked on their decision to focus on bigger and bigger houses.
People are now reevaluating what all this means. Suddenly a more modest sized house and a more modest sized car that also come with a more modest sized price seem like very smart choices. Those smaller houses are comfortable with less stuff in them. So what else would that money be spent on then, if we are buying less stuff to fill our oversized houses with?
Perhaps on education, for our selves or our family members. Maybe more on preventive health care and health maintenance. Maybe personal care like massages, body work, consulting with readers, counselors, mentors. Perhaps more on personal experiences like vacations, visits to sacred places, gyms, yoga studios, tai chi or martial arts training. Maybe more tickets for theatre and live music performances.
Consumption of tons of video games has contributed to a younger generation of people who are out of shape and more prone to problems like diabetes at a young age. Low tech consumption would have contributed to a more fit generation. Playing ball, but not necessarily organized participation, bicycling, walking and other simple things in greater measure make a difference in general fitness levels.
The race to always own the newest cell phone, the biggest TV, the newest whatever also means that you have to work more hours to pay for all that stuff. So not buying all that means you have more time to spend with other people.
What about employment? What if our brightest minds were in a competition to make the most efficient energy systems to power our grids with renewable sources instead of being devoted to developing a hundred more flavors of potato chips and cell phones with more gizmos and games? Money would still be spent and new jobs would be created, but with much more beneficial results.
Of course, we will always be making money and buying things because these exchanges are necessary to life. So what if instead of always tending to think that bigger is better, we made more conscious choices? We vote for what kind of world we want to create when we spend our money.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
What is Our Identity?
One of the most eerie crimes is identity theft. When a person loses things to a theft, that is upsetting, but things can be replaced. Even if your home has been broken into and you feel that your privacy has been invaded, it would still pale in comparison to discovering that that someone else has been going around pretending to be you.
Imagine if someone hacked into records and erased your identity and someone else was using it. What if you lost it and could not get it back? You would still be the same person, but without your documents, would you feel like you had a life?
Funny how some pieces of paper can make us feel so different. It would have to feel like the strangest experience if you suddenly found yourself unable to do ordinary things if you could not prove that your are who you are. But your identity is not really you. Or is it?
If you lost all your ID's, and you could not prove you were you, who would you be? How much of who we are is tied to our identity? It is a strange concept isn't it?
Imagine if someone hacked into records and erased your identity and someone else was using it. What if you lost it and could not get it back? You would still be the same person, but without your documents, would you feel like you had a life?
Funny how some pieces of paper can make us feel so different. It would have to feel like the strangest experience if you suddenly found yourself unable to do ordinary things if you could not prove that your are who you are. But your identity is not really you. Or is it?
If you lost all your ID's, and you could not prove you were you, who would you be? How much of who we are is tied to our identity? It is a strange concept isn't it?
Friday, October 24, 2008
End of the World? No, Thanks
Every so often, people will bring up the subject of 2012 because some people say that is the end of the Mayan Calendar and they believe that some phenomenal change will happen that year because of that fact.
Remember Y2K? In the run up to that New Year at the turn of the millennium, lots of people bought into the notion that computers would not be able to figure out the date change and our entire civilization would come to a screeching halt. Of course that did not happen, did it?
Common sense dictated that there was a problem that needed to be fixed and there were too many people who had a stake in finding a solution to let it all fail. Some people ended up with lots of huge cans of mac and cheese and other goodies that they can be snacking on for a long time.
What about the Mayan Calendar? What if those old stone carvers from so long ago just got tired? What if they figured that all that carving a couple thousand years ahead was a lot of work and that some other stone carvers could continue the work several generations from then?
Yes, I spend absolutely no time worrying about the meaning of the Mayan Calendar. I am planning my life and acting accordingly as if that date will simply come and go, just as Y2K did. A famous radio talk show host who featured a lot of jabber about the great coming Y2K collapse featured lots of advertisers on his show selling survival gear and supplies for the great disaster, like hand cranked radios, night vision goggles, tons of canned goods, all kinds of stuff. He was too embarrassed to continue his radio show after the world failed to end on time. Of course, he and his advertisers must have made quite a tidy sum stoking people's fears.
The popularity of the idea of the Law of Attraction right now certainly would indicate that we need to think positively about our future. If some sort of critical mass of people started really believing that the world would come to an end, no good will come of it.
Interestingly, around the time of the first millennium shift there were also people who thought the world would come to an end because a thousand year span seemed huge to them.
At various times leaders of different religious sects predicted the end of the world. Of course, they had to revise their teachings after those dates came and went.
My strong feeling is that we just have to live our lives in whatever way we feel best, and ignore all prophecies about end times. If we all just do what is best, our lives will be better and longer, and this planet will be a healthier place to be.
Just remember, everything comes from either love or fear. Why waste our time living in fear?
Remember Y2K? In the run up to that New Year at the turn of the millennium, lots of people bought into the notion that computers would not be able to figure out the date change and our entire civilization would come to a screeching halt. Of course that did not happen, did it?
Common sense dictated that there was a problem that needed to be fixed and there were too many people who had a stake in finding a solution to let it all fail. Some people ended up with lots of huge cans of mac and cheese and other goodies that they can be snacking on for a long time.
What about the Mayan Calendar? What if those old stone carvers from so long ago just got tired? What if they figured that all that carving a couple thousand years ahead was a lot of work and that some other stone carvers could continue the work several generations from then?
Yes, I spend absolutely no time worrying about the meaning of the Mayan Calendar. I am planning my life and acting accordingly as if that date will simply come and go, just as Y2K did. A famous radio talk show host who featured a lot of jabber about the great coming Y2K collapse featured lots of advertisers on his show selling survival gear and supplies for the great disaster, like hand cranked radios, night vision goggles, tons of canned goods, all kinds of stuff. He was too embarrassed to continue his radio show after the world failed to end on time. Of course, he and his advertisers must have made quite a tidy sum stoking people's fears.
The popularity of the idea of the Law of Attraction right now certainly would indicate that we need to think positively about our future. If some sort of critical mass of people started really believing that the world would come to an end, no good will come of it.
Interestingly, around the time of the first millennium shift there were also people who thought the world would come to an end because a thousand year span seemed huge to them.
At various times leaders of different religious sects predicted the end of the world. Of course, they had to revise their teachings after those dates came and went.
My strong feeling is that we just have to live our lives in whatever way we feel best, and ignore all prophecies about end times. If we all just do what is best, our lives will be better and longer, and this planet will be a healthier place to be.
Just remember, everything comes from either love or fear. Why waste our time living in fear?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
