And So It Goes - Week of April 25 - May 1, 2021

I am a long time subscriber of The Sun magazine.I am not a big fan of poetry. It's too hard for me to understand most of it to enjoy it. I love most song lyrics but most poetry leaves me stumped and confused. I don't see what people see in a lot of it. Maybe that's part of my brain that never developed.At any rate, I loved a poem in this month's Sun Magazine entitled, "My Late Breast." I understood it, enjoyed it, it made me sad and laugh. It seemed worth mentioning.

---------------------------------

People want to show me their photos on their smartphones and sometimes Tik Tok videos. I get invited to join Instagram, SnapChat, and other image platforms. The challenge is to turn being an audience for performance, "look at me," into validating mirroring that empowers and contributes to enhanced awareness, well being, resonance, and mutuality. It should be said, “I’ll look at yours if you will look at mine.” What would such an exchange mean for us?

----------------------------

She said she was ready to die at age 54. She was asked “What is your psychological legacy? What is it that you have learned about life that you would want people to know? You can’t die until you teach them what you've learned.” “Okay,” is what she said, “For next time?” I said, “Right.” She said, “Okay.”

----------------------

Sometimes all people need in life is an enlightened supportive witness. It’s like sunlight on plants. With that attention they grow and thrive.

-------------------------------

He said life seemed overwhelming. I agreed and said it would be alright in the end. He said, “Really?” with a skeptical look. I said, “Absolutely!” not being sure myself but apparently having more faith. In the end, what do we have, really, but faith? There sure aren’t any guarantees.

----------------------

I was reminded again this week multiple times how important it is in life to accentuate the positive and minimize the negative. Forgiveness and gratitude is so much more effective in enhancing well being than judgment and grievance.

-------------------------

And So It Goes April 18 - April 24, 2001

 When it comes to their marriage she asked me in front of her husband after talking with the two of them about their relationship for an hour, “Is there any hope?” What do you say to a question like that? I had an opinion but like a good counselor said, “What do you think?” She seemed to deflate and her husband looked anxious. I wanted to say, “Hope is my business. I sell several different varieties. What kind of hope do you have a hankering for?” Of course, I didn’t say that. I am a professional after all. So I said, “Yes, there is. Do you want to meet again and talk more about it? They both agreed and we set up a time. We’ll see.

----------------------------------

Philosophers and theologians have long emphasized the value of gratitude, and this is now buttressed by research. When we ask people to think about a time in their life when they have felt grateful, it diminishes unconscious thoughts of death. There’s a lot more work that needs to be done in this domain, but I find it to be one of the most uplifting directions of our research. Be humble. Be grateful. It’s good for you. It’s good for the world. 

Sheldon Solomon, The Sun Magazine, April 2021

-----------------------------------

The father said about his developmentally disabled overweight 32 year old son, “He has trouble emptying his bladder.” Frank asked, “Does he pee standing up or sitting down?” The father said, “Sitting down.” Frank said, “Have him stand up.” The father said, “He often misses the mark.” Frank said, “What about the bushes?”

---------------------------------

A simple observation for the Trumpists and others, “Just because you want to believe it doesn’t make it true.”

----------------------------------

A guy told me that his biggest fear about retirement is running out of money before he dies. I said, “Well, sorry to hear that. I’m set for life as long as I die next week.”

------------------------------------------

Jesus said that unless we become like little children we can’t enter the Kingdom of heaven. What Jesus meant was curiosity, reverence, an enchantment with the mystery of life is the doorway to heaven.

---------------------------

I was wrong, always, about everything. Nothing was ever good enough. Tolerance was the most I could hope for I now realize in retrospect. Finally, I said, “If you’re that unhappy. Maybe you should get a divorce.” And she did after 35 years. And that was that.

------------------------

There is also an urgent need to root out extremism in law enforcement and the armed forces. Among the first 150 people arrested and charged with federal crimes after the attack on the Capitol, 21 were current or former members of the U.S. military, according to CNN. Some were affiliated with the Proud Boys. Last year police officers in North Carolina were fired after posting racist videos, and an FBI threat-assessment report dating back to 2006 expressed alarm about supremacist infiltration of law-enforcement ranks. Scientific America, April 2021, p.8

----------------------------------------

What do you do when  most of the reporting on fake news is fake news?

------------------------------

I had the thought all day today that something is seriously wrong. I was in my office on Saturday doing my billing to get the money I need to pay my taxes this year in three weeks on May 15th  for 2020.. I am very aware that the money I am making to pay my taxes for 2020 will be income that I must pay taxes on for 2021. Tennessee Ernie Ford’s song, “!6 Tons” comes to mind. “Sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don't you call me for I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.”

--------------------------------

The title of the book was “The Death Of Truth: Notes On Falsehoods In The Age Of Trump.” In referring to the book in a post I miswrote the title as “The Death of Trump,” I followed up the post with an apology for the Freudian Slip and someone commented, “No apology needed. I wish he were dead too.” I replied to that comment that I do not wish Donald Trump dead, but wish him well and feel sorry for what he is facing in his post-presidency life. I stated that I would not want to trade places with him for all the tea in China, would the commenter? The commenter replied, “No. They certainly wouldn’t want to trade places with him either.” As Jesus said, “What good is it for a person to gain the whole world and to lose their soul?”

And so it goes............Week of April 11 - April 17, 2021

 

Brigid, killed at 5 in a drunk driving crash in 1993 would be 34 today, April 11, 2021. I still miss her and visit with her in my dreams from time to time. She was/is a sweetheart. I am so glad I got to know her.

----------------------------------

Some people’s God punishes people because they didn’t do what that God wanted them to do. What kind of God is that?

-------------------------------

It’s been rainy the last few days. Then I remembered that “April showers bring May flowers.”

--------------------------------------------

A friend of mine, recently released from prison, is finding it hard to adjust to all the requirements and expectations of non institutional life, and he keeps encouraging himself by saying to himself, “Resilience. I have to be resilient”. Yesterday, he added a new word to his mantra, “Gratitude.” He says now, “I have to be resilient and grateful.” Don’t we all?

-------------------------

I read this in Neale Donald Walsch’s book, The New Revelations: A Conversation with God on page 29 and it made me laugh, “Everything depends not on whether you believe IN God, but on what you believe ABOUT God.”

--------------------------------------

The millennial anti-vaxxers are people who benefited from childhood vaccinations for polio, small pox, tetanus, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, diphtheria, etc. The paradoxes in life seem amazing sometimes

------------------------------

The problem is not the ethnocentrism of Trumpists but their denial of truth. The postmodern age which has taught that truth is socially constructed and contextual has done great damage and led to narcissistic nihilism for which Donald J. Trump has become the poster boy..

_________________________

A 17 year old nerdy, introverted, female became known as the school slut because she had sex with her first boy friend and six of his buddies. She became very depressed and suicidal. When I asked her how she explained this she said to me, “I guess I’d rather be used than be alone.”

--------------------------------------

Grief over pet loss is significant and slowly being more and more recognized and acknowledged in our culture. Is this an evolutionary step forward as more and more people develop more reverence for the interdependent web of all existence. Animals are no longer exploited because they are increasingly appreciated as our friends and fellow travelers on planet earth.

--------------------------------------------

“I’m giving up vengeance and just forgiving people.” She’s 62 and had a traumatic childhood full of abuse, pain, and suffering which led to a huge chip on her shoulder and she became a “tough girl” that nobody wanted to mess with. “It served you well for several decades,” I said, “and now it’s outrun its usefulness. Time to give it up.” “Exactly,” she said with a smile. This is what A Course In Miracles calls a “miracle.” They happen more often than you ‘d think.

-----------------------------

And so it goes...........observations during the week of April 4 - April 10

 Easter is a remembrance that Love wins over the body. The body can be killed but the soul is forever.

-------------------------------

People mistake “racism” for “prejudice” and “discrimination.” Racism is systemic and as white people say “I don’t see color,” not because they are prejudiced or even consciously discriminatory but simply because they  narcissistically  think that their privilege is natural and how things are supposed to be for them.

________________________

In April, 2021 over twenty states have legislation pending or recently passed that attack transgendered people for reasons that even they can’t rationally explain.

______________________

What is the one question that you have to say “Yes” to?

What does Y - E - S spell?

________________

Some people say that when they sit real quiet and still and clear their minds of all thoughts, and relax their bodies, they feel the Love Of God within them. Did that ever happen to you?

---------------------------------

Did you ever notice that sports is the new religion? It’s what most people watch on Sundays. They dress up in the vestments, chant the hymns of praise to their team, identify with  a mythical group that is bigger than themselves, and spend far more to indulge their participation than they would ever put in a collection plate.

-------------------------------

“A few days later, I yelled at him for losing his new lunch box. And he turned to me and said, ‘Are you sure you’re my mother. Sometimes you don’t seem like a good enough person.’ He was just a kid so I let it go. And now, years later, I probably only think of it, I don’t know, one or twice a day.” Jenny Offill, Weather, p.23

-------------------------

“It is dusk when Henry and I leave the park. A car nearly runs over us. Now we’re right next to her at the light. My brother goes up to the window. ‘Lady, you almost killed us,’ he tells her. But she won’t look at him. ‘You and your precious lives,’ she says.” Jenny Offill, Weather, p. 57

---------------------------

“She tells me that her phone was stolen and she’s been using a really old one instead. She won’t get the newest model, she’s decided. ‘So I just go at a slower pace. I know I’m missing things because I can’t respond quickly enough to what people say or show me, but that’s okay. It gives me more time to think,” she says.” Jenny Offill, Weather, p.61

---------------------------

Jenny Offill tells the following joke in her novel, Weather, on page 138. “How does a Unitarian walk on water?” “She waits until winter.”

--------------------------------

The bumper sticker says “It’s not hoarding if it’s books.” Made me laugh, but I know I have a problem.

--------------------------------

Neale Donald Walsch writes that people who don’t like the word “God” should substitute the word “Life.”. Unless you’re suicidal or homicidal who doesn’t believe in life?

_______________________

Ken Wilber, if you’re interested, has a theory of everything. It’s called “Integral” and he claims it’s the next step in human evolution. It’s worth checking out.

----------------------------------------------------

A friend, 75  mentioned that honoring the Sabbath, after having gone by the wayside for the most part, might be a good ritual for our culture to resurrect and follow. He has begun to do so, and I have followed his example. If God got a day off once a week, it might be a good idea for us humans too.

And so it goes ............Observations during the week of March 28 - April 3, 2021

 

Week of March 28, 2021 - April 3, 2021

When the corruption and unethical behavior of political office holders  is discovered and broadcast to the public it is, in a democracy, always good to ask, “Who elected these people to represent them?”

------------------------------------------

This past week has been for Christians, “Holy Week '' which commemorates Jesus' arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. The point of the story is lost on most people, especially most Christians who interpret the story as a blood sacrifice to appease a wrathful God when it really is about the inconsequential fact of the body’s temporary existence but the eternal power of Love.

--------------------------------

In heavy traffic this past week, two different people paused to let me in ahead of them. How nice is that? It’s the small things that make one hopeful for the human race and the world.

-----------------------------

The spiritual question of the month is “Are you a body with a soul or a soul with a body?” One person answered “both.” Of course, but which point of focus do you think is most important?

--------------------------------------------------

What we are seeing now in the news every day since Trump was voted out of office is the law of Karma being manifested. As mothers, fathers, therapists, teachers, employers, judges have taught, “Behavior has consequences” or more to the point, “What goes around comes around.”

-------------------------------------

Stimulus checks are letting poor people take small short vacations, buy new furniture and TVs and even go gambling at the casinos. Isn’t life grand? Some even are catching up on their back bills and paying their rent ahead a month. The question, of course, is what happens when the stimulus money is gone?

------------------------------------

Unitarian Universalist churches have mistakenly thought that they are social clubs and social justice agencies. They have forgotten or marginalized their primary mission which is to facilitate and nurture spiritual growth.

--------------------

Jesus said so nicely “What does it profit a person if they gain the whole world but lose their soul?” Happens plenty of times every day often to the applause of the audience.

 ---------------------------

A guy said one time, “My body is nothing without me.” Wow…………………….

-------------------------------------

There are winter birds and summer birds and birds passing through in spring and fall. One of the joys of spring is seeing the birds passing through and those that have come north for the summer.

-------------------------

We find it hard to make progress on developing a more just, equal, and compassionate society when we continue to confuse prejudice, discrimination, and systemic racism. While these components interact, they are not the same thing and we would do well to make the distinction when we consider them if we are to improve the quality of life on our planet.

-----------------------

Schooling is not the same thing as education. We are learning more about this difference as a result of schools being shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Being raised a good Catholic boy who was in the seminary for a while, on Friday, I yucked it up good with a joke from my seminary days telling people to have "a good Friday." Have a good Friday on Good Friday, get it?

--------------------------------------

Auditing a course this Spring, 2021 semester at SUNY Brockport entitled "Sociology Goes To The Movies" We have to watch and critique seven films. The first was The Matrix, the second is Crash, and the third is Pocahontas. The point of the class says the instructor is “critical analysis” meaning how do films exemplify sociological concepts and theories? It is interesting how pop culture can be thought to operate at two levels: to entertain, and to socially condition the audience.

_________________________