“Sail on, O Ship of State”

Reading an old Harvard Classics book of selected works of the English poets, I came across a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, entitled “The Building of the Ship.” Like the others in this book, it contained a passage or a phrase that most of us have heard all our lives, but never knew its origin. This excerpt seems especially meaningful in these currently challenging times:

“Build me straight, O worthy Master,

Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel,

That shall laugh at all disaster,

And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!…”

“…Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!

 Sail on, O Union, strong and great!

Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years

Is hanging  breathless on thy fate!

We know what Master laid the keel,

What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,

What anvils rang, what hammers beat,

In what a forge and what a heat

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!

Fear not each sudden sound and shock,

‘Tis of the wave and not the rock;

‘Tis but the flapping of the sail,

And not a rent made by the gale!

In spite of rock and tempest’s roar,

In spite of false lights on the shore,

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,

Our faith triumphant o’er our fears

Are all with thee,–are all with thee.”

–HW Longfellow

 

CLUTTER (As Distinguished from Hoarding, Which Is a Whole Other Mind-set)

Clutter is a big problem for most of us in modern times. Back when many of us didn’t have much, we saved everything we could. We mended, handed down, re-soled, glued together, and repaired. Now we are showered with things we don’t want, are given or left to us by someone we care(d) for, paperwork we are not sure that we can or should throw away, and magazines/books that we intend to read someday. My refrigerator and the back of my (metal) front door are covered with “important” notes, lists, appointments, coupons, receipts, etc., because if I put them in a drawer, I will lose them. I have already forgotten what is in my cabinets.

So the inside of my house looks like the inside of my mind! And the stuff in the cabinets is in the “basement” or “attic” of my mind–still there, and I don’t want to part with it, but basically useless.

Birds and animals do not foul their own nests and burrows. They remove or bury their own excrement, though crows have been known to bring shiny objects to their nests, and packrats may stuff their nests for the same reasons that people hoard. People fill closets, chests, shelves, bookcases, curio cabinets, and filing cabinets, trying to organize their “stuff.” They display things on their walls. They store things in basements, attics, and garages. Their houses are museums. And then if they still don’t have enough space for things seldom used, needed, or thought of, they build storage sheds or rent commercial space.

Wild animals–and some primitive people–move on when their home gets fouled or no longer serves them as shelter. Civilized people demolish the old and build again on the ashes of the old, bigger, better, and with more space and better ways  to store more of their possessions and information. There is good and bad in this, some necessity and wisdom, some folly and actual hindrance to getting on with our lives. Scanning and storing electronically only gets it out of sight. Virtual clutter is still clutter. However, it is much easier to delete than to burn!

Would that we could delete at will the inner clutter that no longer serves us! Then we would find it easier to better organize on the outside  what is necessary and desired, and jettison the rest.

Virtual Home

 

MORE PET PEEVES

Have you noticed? On TV or in the movies:

 90% of the time, nobody  eats the food when they are supposed to be having a meal. Why? Is it fake? Old? Cold? At breakfast, it’s one sip of a beverage and they’re out the door, to school, the office, or some appointment. What is supposed to keep them going until lunch–which they won’t eat, either? Does hard-working Mom just throw the food into the trash, then? What kind of message is that to the viewing audience? Or am I the only one who cares?

 Two people in the car, and the driver often takes his/her eyes off the road while talking to the passenger for so long that I get nervous, even though I know the “car” is a cutaway prop and is not moving, while the scenery goes by on film, and he will not have an accident unless it’s in the script.

Cell Phones: “Everyone has a Smart Phone,” you hear in the commercials, just as “everyone” has a Facebook and Twitter account. My cell phone does not even have a QWERTY keypad. And the ease with which all the teens and 20-somethings on TV appear to carry on instant text conversations, scheduling, and transactions is certainly not typical. I got my cell/mobile phone so I could talk to people when I am away from home, and I pay as little as I can to keep that service. Why should I pay $100 a month to carry around a hand-held computer?

Words & Phrases

One local talk show host says he is going to tell his listeners “a heart-rendering story.”

Many news personalities mispronounce “pundits,” inserting an n between the i and t. Three people I can think of who do this are Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, and Diane Sawyer.

This one is uttered by educated and common folk alike: “not that big of a deal.” The expression has several variations, but the error is the placement of the prepositional phrase after an adjective (big, bad, hard, much, etc.) If you are going to use the slang expression, please omit the “of” and say, “not that big a deal.”

And still being heard: “Noo-kyuh-ler.” Need I say more? It makes you sound like a hick. (I wanted to thump George Dubyuh every time he said that, though I think he has shown a great deal of dignity and “class” since leaving the public spotlight.)

SCARY!!

New “Smart Meters” are being installed in my city. This will allow remote reading of the meters, and the power companies won’t have to pay so many techs to go out to homes and businesses to read the meters on site. What we are hearing in the radio commercials, however, is this: “Your Smart Meter EMPOWERS YOU because no one has to come into your yard to read it. It can be read remotely. This protects your privacy.”

(So much for that BS!) Actually, this empowers THEM, not you. Soon the regulations on home and building wiring will change to permit remote access and control of thermostats, etc. While it is nice that the power company will know right away when there is a power outage, and can get started fixing it sooner, it also means that they will have the means to turn off the power to a neighborhood for several minutes if there is a heavy demand on the power grid. They can determine when or at what temperature your air conditioner or heater comes on, and perhaps when your lights will shut off. Don’t you find that empowering? I find it terrifying.

 

THE PLAN

What Are We?

…Concepts of  “was,” “did,” “become,” “will/shall,” “may”…..concepts of “want,” “can,” “have,” and “HAD”……………
WHAT ARE WE that we are able to even think, wonder, and desire? What are we that we can even ASK THIS QUESTION: “What are we?”

The IDEA  must exist within any thing that lives and changes, and it must be benevolent in order to guide or impel that organism towards its good. A PLAN is an Idea with legs.
A blueprint is an application of a Plan. It cannot change, even in reaction to need or threat. Someone has to erase or bypass the old part and replace it with a new, compatible but different, part.
In the human DNA structure, the BLUEPRINT does not change, but the ability to mutate is built into the Plan. Also the past experience of the species is recapitulated as the organism develops to its adult form. Thus, the body grows until fully formed, then maintains that form by taking in what it can use, and eliminating what it cannot use. And at some pre-set point within the Plan, no matter how well we take care of ourselves–even replace parts or grow new ones–our DNA no longer directs the body to heal itself as fast as it is failing (apoptosis–the timed death of certain cells), and the body wears out. The brain ceases to function. The personhood of that body gradually ceases to exist, even as a memory. And the self-energy rejoins the universal energy.

The form grows, maintains itself, and then disintegrates. The Plan may evolve over time, but once in place for any conceived living form, it does not change. It is the only constant in one’s existence. The rest consists of organized interacting patterns of matter/energy.”I” do not exist, except to the extent that I can create and maintain the IDEA in my own mind and in the minds of others that I do.
(However, stubbing my toe on a door frame can be a potent reminder if I forget–part of the Plan, no doubt!)

The Plan is a blending of 2 (and only 2) forms (along with their histories.) Only a clone can be a copy of its ancestor.
      ”You have your mother’s eyes.”
      ”You’re just like your father!” [not!]
      ”You inherited [that talent] or [that disease*].

*Unity’s Myrtle Fillmore did not believe that a child of God inherits disease, and built a healing ministry on that premise.

Most genetic defects were not “meant” to be defects, but variations.
Most variations are never noticed.
Unsuccessful variations die out with their unviable forms (or are supposed to.)
The ability to mutate enables forms to adapt to a changing environment. It is the instrument of survival and evolution.

And where does all this leave us, as conscious, aware beings with memories, hopes, beliefs, and desires, the ability to affect our environment, the course of our lives, and those of others? What of the ability to sit here and write these thoughts out loud?

We are manifestations (SONS) of Original Being, vehicles for “God” to be and do ALL THAT “HE” CAN IMAGINE through us.

That is the only answer there can be. Are we having fun yet? Well, WHY NOT?

Going pro?

 

IN MY 8TH DECADE……

My parents were raised in the Methodist Church. My father was awarded a Bible for perfect Sunday School attendance. I was christened in a big, old stone-faced Methodist church with a steeple, rows of dark wood pews, an organ, and a kneeling rail where we all took Communion once a month. We all went to Sunday School, and I still remember the words and melody to most of the hymns in the Methodist Hymnal. I can recite The Apostle’s Creed, sing the Doxology, and the Gloria Patri. As a teenager I joined my parents  as a member of the choir.
Thoroughly indoctrinated in the Christian faith, Methodist version, and not really knowing anyone of a different tradition, it is quite understandable that as soon as I emerged from that cocoon, and met some decent, intellectually curious people who never went to church, but spent their Sundays doing something else that interested them, I would be like a kid in a candy store.

In college–even an Agricultural & Engineering college where I went–it was fashionable for the Science students to be either agnostic or studying  Eastern theology. I read the Bhagavad Gita and “Bridey Murphy.” I learned to play chess (sort of), hung out at the college radio station, and felt that I had found a place where my questions about philosophy would not be considered heretical, but interesting. I even had a novice ham radio license (KN5KBL) for a year, though it was more a trophy than something I used. Though I could not stay longer than 3 semesters, due to lack of direction and money, when I left to get married (in a church), I took my attraction to Eastern theology with me, and I did not go back to church for several years.

I missed it, though. I missed the music, mostly. I tried taking the kids to Sunday School a few times, but it was a hassle getting them dressed and driving to the Methodist church where we didn’t know anyone. It didn’t last long. We stayed away from any church until the kids grew up. Once they went to a Vacation Bible School and were indoctrinated with some Bible stories and learned to recite the names of the books in order. It is not surprising that two of them never went to church after becoming adults.

What IS surprising is that the other two did attend regularly, at least for a few years, one at a Baptist church where he was the sound engineer, and the other at a Unity church where she served on the Board for one term.

After we divorced, my husband got involved in a correspondence Bible Study course. After some time, he told me that the teachers had encouraged him to become a minister, and he asked me what I thought. I told him that I honestly thought they encouraged anyone who stuck with the program as long as he had. Since he was a socially shy person, I suppose that he decided against it, kept his religion to himself, and lived a basically moral, Conservative life. He had burglar bars on the house and went to the Target Shooting Range every Sunday.

In the years when one is busy making a living, church does not seem important, especially if his/her weekends are the only time left to take care of personal things and get some rest. Newly single, with the kids on their own, I wanted spiritual company and support. By then I had studied astrology and been through nine degrees of the Rosicrucian Order. The Unity Church seemed the right place for me to find others with unconventional beliefs. I found friends there and discovered abilities that I did not know I had. I sang, I wrote, I healed, I reached out, and I loved. I went to retreats. And then I went back to college to train for a career as a health professional. When I graduated, I moved 500 miles away to a part of Texas where I could get a job and comfortably work as a middle-aged white woman who couldn’t speak Spanish.

I found a Unity church 25 miles away from where I lived, and I attended for a while, even after I moved farther away from it. But every Unity church is different, and this one was more formal than the one I had left in the Rio Grande Valley, and most of the people had more money than I did.  I did not fit. So, soon I was spending my Sundays at home with my cats, or doing something  that interested me, often with someone I liked.

And then I retired and out of necessity moved back to the Valley. Less able to go anywhere and do anything I wanted now, due to physical and financial restraints, I went back to the little Unity church where I had blossomed many years ago, and I took an active part. But it is because I wanted to avoid becoming a “potted plant” at home. IN MY 8TH DECADE, I no longer accept the dogmas that were the foundation of my spiritual beliefs when I was younger. I believe that we all have to work through these ideas near the end of our lives, in order to discover what we CAN believe as the truth. And at this point, that’s ALL I am interested in. (Well, almost all.)

Here is where I am now:
ENERGY—->BEING/”IS-NESS”(I AM)—->EXPRESSION—->OTHER.
DESIRE (to act)—->ORGANIZATION—->MATTER—->CHEMICAL REACTION—->LIFE.
CONSCIOUSNESS.

All this I can believe.
Where does the idea of a personal God come from? Or the idea of many gods? It is that there seem to be forces more powerful than we are, and that we cannot control. It is that we don’t know how we got here, why we are here, what we should do, and what happens to our “self” after the body dies. We need a God in charge of all that–and someone to blame for it. Most of us need to believe that someone knows the “how” and “why”, and that someday we will know.
But has anyone heard a voice, seen a non-material being, or been transported instantly to a place off the planet? I can only say that I have caught hold of occasional intuitive ideas during my lifetime, and acted on them with success.
I have felt healing energy, gentle support and guidance, and on rare occasions, joy when I had no reason to feel it.

DO WE NOT LIVE IN A CLOUD OF ENERGY THAT CAN BE DIRECTED AS NEEDED? POWER IS DIRECTED ENERGY. IS THAT NOT GOD? God is not outside the creation: God expressed IS the creation, and that explains how S/He can be everywhere at once and know everything at once.

 

Free Lunch (and breakfast)

The notice below has been appearing in my local newspaper, as required by law. School is starting soon, and I’m sure that all local parents will be glad to know this:

Really, who is there left who could possibly feel discriminated against? Even white kids who are neither poor, nor disabled can get the free lunch and breakfast. An alien from another planet could eat for free in this school district, and have the right to complain if he/she/it were denied service!

The only common-sense reason that I can see for doing things this way is that it is simply less expensive and time-consuming to go through the process of  qualifying the kids according to whatever legal/social standards are left. Everybody gets fed for free. No cash register, no vouchers or tickets. Just step up and get your politically-correct meal (half of which will probably be wasted, but that’s another story.)

[Author's note]: It has been suggested to me that a much simpler reason is the basis for feeding all the kids, regardless of family income, and I should have thought if it before. It is simply that the more kids they feed, the more money the school district gets from the federal government. This is a “depressed area,” and it would not surprise me if once a certain percentage of low-income families is verified, declaring it 100% can be deemed automatic. Have I guess the truth?

 

THE ONE-WEEK TV DIARY

This is the second time since I have been living in this area that I have been asked to do a one-week TV diary. Along with the little book that arrived in the mail came a larger book full of survey questions from the company that has been hired to do this thing. Why am I spending time filling these things out? Well, it is about the only way I might be able to influence what is available to me on TV, since writing or emailing the cable company gets a generic letter explaining why they are doing whatever you are complaining about.

These people are going to see that an old lady doesn’t necessarily want to watch soaps, chick flicks, sit-coms, and reality shows. They  may be surprised to find out that I almost never watch network TV, and that I don’t even turn on the TV during the daytime hours unless there is a breaking news situation that is being covered by cable news. I listen to the radio instead. And I don’t have a DVR. If I miss a show I like, I watch it later on Hulu.com.

They are going to learn that I think the best original programming is on TNT and USA, that I loved the SYFY “Stargate” series, that I don’t like vampire and horror shows, and I don’t think “WWE Smackdown Wrestling” belongs on the SYFY channel, unless they classify that as Fantasy. They will learn that I am among those who were very disappointed when NBC finally put a serious scifi series (“The Event”) on in prime time, and then cancelled it at the end of one season. I thought it had potential.

They will learn that, although I don’t believe the Earth was created in six days, I DO think there is entirely too much sex/crime/obscenity everywhere on TV. There is also entirely too much “reality”, which in my opinion is certainly bogus and contrived.

So if I watch the “Falling Skies” Marathon all evening on Sunday, it’s because it’s a well-acted story that takes watching a couple of times to “get” what is going on in the story, and  it’s because there is nothing else better to watch.

Now, about that other survey booklet, I got about 2/3 through the questions what I started finding some that I did not think I should answer–or should be answered by anyone, frankly–and I wrote “None of your business”, and refused. Strangely enough, I got a call that day from the company to ask if I had received the materials and whether I was going to do the survey. The caller voluntarily told me that I did not have to answer any question that I did not want to, and I told her that I had found some of those, and I didn’t think they needed to know those things.

I will finish my diary on Sunday, and I will seal the booklets up and put them in the mail. It won’t cost me anything–and they paid me $7 for my effort.

 

A Course in Alternate Reality (A Rant)

This is a personal critique of certain fundamental assertions found in A Course in Miracles, the book scribed in shorthand by Dr. Helen Schucman, and typed by Dr. Wm. Thetford between 1965 and 1972, published by the Foundation for Inner Peace, which holds the copyright. The writings were, according to Dr. Schucman, dictated to her mentally by a voice, which she identified as the spiritual entity Jesus, which began with the instruction, “This is a course in miracles. Take notes.”

Click here–>   http://www.a-course-in-miracles-news.com/helen-schucman  for a brief story of how it began.

Thesis: We, as our ego personalities, are WRONG, and we are always trying to defend our WRONGNESS–and make it RIGHT, rather than accept the truth: that the world is OK, and it is OUR PERCEPTION OF IT THAT IS THE ERROR.
You have to be a mental contortionist to accept this.

 
The following  quote, from the book “One Day My Soul Just Opened Up,” by Van Zant, appeared on the back of our [Unity] church bulletin:
“What is the ego?
“Ego is the part of the mind that believes it’s separated from the Mind of God. It believes in sin, guilt, fear, attack, lack, and death. It’s but a dream of what you really are, and is a wish to be what God did not create. It is a thing of madness, not reality at all.”
[The person who wrote this may have been a student of ACIM.]

At the beginning of the Sunday Lesson, entitled “My Ego and I,” the congregation received a handout (from a former ACIM facilitator) of a responsive reading based on “truths” asserted in ACIM (probably the Workbook portion.):

Responsive Reading- – from A Course in Miracles:
(Leader ) ” I have judged everything I look upon, and it is this and only this I see. My judgments have been made quite apart from reality. They lack validity and have hurt me. I do not want to see according to them. I am willing to change my mind.”
(All)  “Let me remember the power of my decision, and recognize where I really abide.” (This response followed each statement.)
WHAT I HEAR: I cannot trust my own ability to discern what is good or bad, beneficial or harmful, true or false, real or unreal? I am delusional by nature?
(Leader ) “I have judged amiss and could not understand what I see. What I see is the projection of my errors of thought. I do not understand what I see because it is not understandable. There is no sense in trying to understand it. I therefore let it go, and make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. I am willing to change my mind.”
WHAT I HEAR: I should not even try to understand the world, since I am unable to understand and judge correctly. Instead, I should just let it go, let it be, and just love everybody.
(Leader)  “My thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. What I call “my thoughts” are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. I am not aware of them because I have made my thoughts to take their place. I am willing to recognize that my thoughts do not mean anything, and to let them go. I choose to have them be replaced by what they were intended to replace. My thoughts are meaningless (italics mine), but all creation lies in the thoughts I think with God. I am willing to change my mind.”
WHAT I HEAR: I am not capable of thinking any meaningful thoughts of my own. I am not capable of creating anything. I am unable to solve any problems (because there are no real problems, except in my error thinking). My brain is good for nothing but operating my body.
(Leader) ” I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly trying to justify my thoughts. I am constantly trying to make them true. I make all things my enemies so that my anger is justified and my attacks are warranted. I have not realized how much I have misused everything I see by assigning this role to it. I have done this to defend a thought system that has hurt me, and that I no longer want. I am willing to let it go. I am willing to change my mind.”
WHAT I HEAR: I am little more than an animal with primitive emotions. I am angry, selfish, and greedy, and I draw bad experiences to me so I can hate others and feel justified in attacking them. (This speaks of the world of movies, TV, and video games, which play to our lowest emotional level in order to keep us involved in watching/playing them. They are meant to be exciting and entertaining, which our daily lives often are not. This infantile behavior is not normal and most of us are not normally that stupid, unless we are carefully taught to be.)

CONCLUSION: There is a good and life-sustaining purpose for every ability that we have. The ego is not our enemy. Through it, we learn over a lifetime, who and what we are, and are not. Through it, we protect ourselves from danger as we learn to perceive it, and seek what we need to stay alive and safe.
We cannot live by “bread alone,” but without the bread, we can’t live at all!

 

HOW TO WIN THE WAR

 In times like these, I think my kids were right not to have children.

 I just read another piece about how the American public needs to arm itself and buy up ammunition–if they can find it–because  Muslim agents are here in our country, actively working to take us down.  According to the email, specific cases are cited where they are spying on our coastal defenses, and doing things such as buying quantities of pre-paid cell phones to be mailed through Canada to Afghanistan to be used in making and setting off roadside IEDs.

About the “devout Muslims” sworn in and working in our Homeland Security Agency, it could be argued that they are needed because only they can truly understand the mind-set of the enemy and pass for one if necessary. The people we are at war with are indoctrinated barbarians who will never understand the concepts of peace, tolerance, and unconditional love. And frankly, we are fools to believe we can defend ourselves with these “tools” against them. But I don’t want to buy a gun. Our only hope is to *corrupt*  the common Muslim people with prosperity, information, and choices.  People who can find something worth living for in this world, are not so eager to pass on to the next. But it will take a generation or two to accomplish this.

I’ve taken a course in marksmanship, and I can shoot if I have to, but I am not handy with a gun. I forget how it works from one time to the next. And I wouldn’t be able to take it apart and clean it. I’m old and I’ll be gone soon, and in a few more years, so will everyone I care about. “May you live in interesting times, and may you get what you wish for,” goes the famous Chinese curse. Well, it seems that I have…and you are. Good luck!

 

I CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOU, SO I MUST BE HARD OF HEARING

I’m “elderly,” so I get a lot of ads in the mail to come to some office or a special event to have a FREE hearing evaluation. I received one today that offered $1,000 off on their “Elite Basic 100% Digital” programmable hearing device, or $1600 off MSRP on a Binaural Set (Medicaid accepted!)
DO YOU HEAR, BUT NOT UNDERSTAND? it said on the front of the card. Absolutely! But for a number of good reasons, as I will try to explain.
DO PEOPLE SEEM TO MUMBLE? was the second question. My answer: They DO mumble, especially people under 40, and people older than that who are around young people in their work.  People who call me on the phone to remind me of an appointment, or to ask me questions in an opinion survey are the worst. Their words  are child-like and half-swallowed, or have a heavy cultural accent. The serving staff in most restaurants and the clerical staff in medical offices are next to worst.
DO PEOPLE COMPLAIN THAT YOU PLAY THE TV TOO LOUD[LY]? Ordinarily I watch TV alone and have the volume down to about “8″. But if there are people in the room talking over the sound, I have to turn on the “caption” feature if I want to know what is being said. Sometimes a loud air conditioner will muffle someone’s voice or the TV audio, and I will have to increase the sound temporarily, or read the lips of a person talking to me. I think that’s reasonable.
But here is the question I didn’t understand: DO YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY UNDERSTANDING WHEN TWO OR MORE PEOPLE ARE TALKING? Doesn’t everyone? On the TV news panel shows where everyone is talking [arguing] at the same time, I have to turn it off or switch to something else. NO one can pay attention to more than one thing at a time, and must switch attention rapidly to catch parts of what several people are saying. And that is something through which I don’t care to force myself.
 In a noisy atmosphere, such as a popular concert, a dance club with live music, or most movie theatres, I have to wear ear plugs–and have for many years. Most people don’t protect their hearing, and they don’t think it’s loud in these places. These are the people who go around wearing earphones and who find texting much easier than talking on the phone.
I don’t like noise. I like music below 70 decibels, and people speaking clearly. There is entirely too much noise pollution in our society today. I don’t think I need a hearing aid to understand my friend who speaks with a foreign accent and has a tremor in her voice. And she understands that I may have to ask her to repeat what she says on the phone, and that  I read her lips when we are together. She isn’t mumbling. But until someone finally got the management of our favorite lunch place to lower the volume on their “background” music, we couldn’t carry on a conversation there without yelling at each other across the table!