Format Change

     This is about Thought Of The Day. For three and a half months I have put out a Thought Of The Day and some have rocked and some have been mediocre but they all have been fun to do, even though a few of them were a struggle to even complete. So I want to talk here about completion and what that means. 
     When Michelangelo finished the Sistine Chapel, did he sit back and go "Ah! My grand work is finished and will glorify this ceiling for hundreds and hundreds of years!" or did he think "Madonna Mia! I really should have drawn God better! I hope The Pope likes it!" and when he finished carving the statue of David and laid down his hammer and chisel was it the same thing- "Mannaggia! His left thumb doesn't look right! I hope nobody notices!". 

     So it is with all works of art. Writings, books, songs, pictures, performances. There's always that doubt, isn't there, in the artist's mind? Well, not always. Sometimes you nail it, you capture the essence, you put the magic in it and you KNOW without a doubt that you 'got it', whatever 'it' is. It's there, you represented, and you have amazed not only whoever enjoys your art but most of all you have amazed and inspired yourself, which of course leads to wanting to do it again, capture 'it' again. 
     I daresay I have captured 'it' a few times since starting Thought Of The Day, and that has been really good for me, but there have been a lot of times I have felt that I have missed the mark- sometimes not by much- and the piece wasn't complete. So....
     ...format change. I am going to try and revisit some pieces before publishing them in an effort to capture more of the essence of whatever subject I am writing about. The plan now is to try and knock out at least two complete Thought Of The Day blog posts a week. There will still be a Thought Of The Day, but that will only exist in draft form and perhaps will never be published.
     Can't really call it 'Thought Of The Day' anymore then, can I? Have to think up a new name, think about it some. Until then, that will be it for now. Stay tuned, check in now and again, see whazzup.

The Internet Never Forgets

     I briefly scanned a story yesterday about a woman whose reputation? ability to reason? was being questioned because of some things she posted on a personal blog ten years ago. Right away I saw that such a fate could befall me in the future so I went back ten years in my esteemed life and searched my memory banks (for I was only surfing the web back then) and I also glanced mentally (becuase it was after work and I was too tired/lazy to read some journaling I had done back then, of which there is a LOT) and the conclusion I reached after my painstaking analysis was: "Who IS this guy?"
      For I in truth did not know him. I remembered him but we do not think alike anymore, that was readily apparent. People change and boy did I ever. The passage of time and the weathering factor of experiences does that to you and I am sure the same thing happened to our aforementioned woman. It even happened to people I know who I thought would NEVER change. 

"Help- I'm in The Matrix!" 

(Photo by Markus Spiske- Unsplash.com)

     The lady in the article was 49, her blog posts were written when she was 39. Is anybody the same at those two different ages? I doubt it. They might be recognizable, yes, but internally, mentally, what amazingly different thought processses are going on because even though you may be still riding in the same car, the way you see the scenery is different. 
     For example, when it comes to the present administration, if I was in my 20's they would seem to be powerful slimy old guys but now that I am thirty years older, they're only a class above me in high school, and some of them are even still in grade school, comparatively. So how can I take them seriously? They're like contemporaries and if my level of overall intelligence is any indication, they can't be THAT much smarter than me, and they're running the world!
     (Something to think about, and worry about, young people)
     Anyway, I wish that whoever is raining judgement down on the woman in question takes inevitable change into account because older people are much more relaxed about things in general. A high percentage of them. While some twenty year olds can be full of fire and be ready for revolution, and some thirty year olds can feel disenfranchised and be rather angry and resentful about it, by the time you hit 49 the talk starts revolving around health and upcoming retirement and grandchildren and other such things. It takes a lot of energy to get fired up about a world you might soon be leaving. But I digress. Truth is, people change, even if what they wrote at some distant time is just a nanosecond ago to the internet. I guess we're going to have to live with that.

Saturdaze

     It's Saturday at work, and that's when the horde lands at the airport. My job is a simple one, but the customers can make it difficult. Soooo many drama queens. You'd think the world was ending, the way some of them act! It all has to do with the fact that they are on the clock and I am too. Their ticking clock is their precious-beyond-words vacation, while my measure of time is how long I have to spend with them before I get to go home. These, as you can imagine, are two VERY different approaches to the day.
     I KNOW these folks are bringing drama, packing drama. Possible scenarios are many. A sampling, from prior experience: There will be those who need directions- STAT. There will be those who are lost. There will be those who have lost items. Who have lost other people. There will be unsteady elderly. Parents with months old children. Parents with multiple children that have to be tracked and corralled constantly- always high drama there. Some people might be shouting at other people far across the way, or muttering things as they sit alone, staring at their cell phones. Many will blindly walk into traffic because they have just exited baggage claim and can't be faulted for not looking, because they are on VACATION. Maybe a person will trip and fall today, or one will get physically sick. 

Aziz Acharki- Unsplash.com

     And God forbid(!) that any actions I make or my company makes gives these people the perception that we are making them wait- even if it is for a minute or two- oh, that's the worst thing. Right away toes start tapping and grand agitation is present. Because they are on vacation! Why, it's almost unforgivable. I might be put in the situation where I have to explain to them the reasons for the delay, information that they may or may not think are valid enough grounds to be put on ice like that. 
      It is for these reasons and many more not listed that my strategy today is that I will check out. I will do my job, but mentally I won't be there. I'll be there enough to appease, but I'm not going to give these demanding dramatists any more of my time than that for the Focus Of My Attention will be elsewhere, thank you, and if you have any questions I will calmly and with perfect customer service practiced poise redirect you to where you will be able to find assistance, for I and many others on our crew are extremely busy. 
     I also wish you to understand that assistance might not be at your beck and call and so you may at times be running solo, might have to put your thinking caps on and locate purveyors of transportation, perhaps look at a map or read a sign, or negotiate other parts of the airport or lot on your own. Turn to re-engage me and I will not be there. My invisibility cloak will be protecting me. 
     Have a nice day!     

Everybody's Praying

     I saw a picture of a huddle of people inside the oval office lately, and a lot of those people were laying hands on the leader of the pack. Now some might see this as a good thing, but I saw it as kinda dicey because I have been around a lot of religious people in my time and the way some of them interpret The Good Book well...  ...let's just say that I NEVER read some of that stuff in there. 
     But on the other hand, you can't say that a person following the ways of The Lord is without faith in a higher being, so they got that going for them, at least. I happen to like the idea of God too. And I've been praying to this being, even talking to him, her, or it sometimes, and I ain't afraid to say it because I have been tested. Lawd! I have been tested in sooo many ways. But I have never seen such trying times as these so I'm praying even harder than ever for a whole lot of things, and if I look around, I see that a lot of other people are praying too. They want to see The Lord's good works happen for them individually, in their communities, in their cities, in their country, and in the world, sort of in that order. 
     God is said to work in mysterious ways and there is no greater evidence of that than what is going on politically right now. My faith has been tested through a trial more scathing than the very fires of hell, brothers and sisters. I have seen the darkest shadow places and I have seen the glimmering path up to the mountaintop. I hope to continue towards that golden path. 

Edward Cisneros- Unsplash.com

    And when I get up in that rarified air, 'cuz I will it to be so, I hope there's room upon that mountaintop for a lot of people that haven't been having it so good. That's what I pray for. I want to see them happy and clean again, full of hope and with a promise of a better future. Don't look like politics is gonna change right now, so I guess we've got to look upon the one 'elected' as our savior, hate to say that, but he's a tenacious one and so I figure that for right now that must be God's plan, because God doesn't make mistakes. 
     Even so, when God's not looking or listening while he's busy answering prayers from the multitude, I've ofttimes prayed for Jesus to beam down, aliens too, and take over with their wisdom and super cool technology, but they're waiting in the wings, I guess, watching, observing, giving us a pointer here and there, in a way that you wouldn't even know it was them. 
     Were God himself to show that would be the greatest thing, but he never does, does he? Never once in The Good Book did he directly show, so it's not likely to happen now, when we really, really need him. 
    So I'm gonna keep praying, just as hard and as passionately as those guys in the White House, and if it comes down to God having to choose who gets their favor bestowed, I want to let him know right now that I'm okay. Okay enough, I guess. Send that favor, that guidance, to where it's really needed at this time. Here's the address:

      1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 20500

      Blessed be!

Ostracized

      This should be known right away- I never watched 'Roseanne' but I did get a feel of what the show was about through channel surfing. The lead character seemed to be a caustic, bossy, and yet credible enough common sense elder that the other members of her extended brood could relate to and that's all I know about that. 
      I also know that she made a ton of money doing what she did. I saw a photograph of her once where she was laying in a bathtub full of money. 

      'Roseanne' became a brand, like 'Madonna' or 'Stallone' is a brand. Roseanne was a very public figure, and inevitably, public figures get hounded for interviews and in that way they share more about themselves and then Twitter (and other social media) comes along and gives celebrities like Ms. Barr a platform where they don't have to wait to get interviewed, they can just Tweet to their heart's content, and that is what ultimately took Roseanne Barr down. Swiftly, from her lofty perch. 
       I was shocked at the news, as were many others, shocked at how quickly her career ended- or has it? It certainly has on ABC. Perhaps some other network might take a gamble on the show, with or without her, but ..... ....her brand is tainted now, and situations like hers are hard to overcome, if not impossible. But, there's always the stand-up circuit, talk radio, podcasting, and other such venues.

Nicolae Rosu- Unsplash.com

        I don't care either way, don't care what she does, she probably still has many bathtubs full of money stashed away somewhere so if she simply faded away into the sunset I don't think she'd be hurtin'. 
       But before all this is over and she recedes from the front page, I would like to thank ABC for taking a stand, for it's decisiveness. No further blathering about it, no lawyers getting involved, no arguing taking place on other networks for or against, just her brand (at the moment) rapidly growing smaller and smaller, and probably soon to disappear, in the rear view mirror.
          Even so, I celebrate her ability to express herself. Our first amendment right to free speech is what this country prides itself on. Go ahead and say whatever you want. But in this case what ABC so astonishingly and refreshingly demonstrated were two things. The first was that ABC management was ultimately more powerful than a star on its network, a star that was bringing them in a lot of money. The second thing was that Roseanne wasn't going to get any support for her views while she was standing on ABC's far-reaching platform. ABC certainly felt that a threat to their brand was imminent and If there was going to be any possible confusion about their moral position vs. Roseanne's in the public's eye, ABC decided that total separation with Roseanne would make that point perfectly clear.

Under Construction

       Life. Always under some sort of remodeling, revamping, reinventing, repositioning, re-whatever. It's how I have spent my days. Never satisfied, never at rest (for long) before it's time to pick up the tools, start tearing down the old, and get to work installing the new. 
        In previous lifetimes it wasn't so much of this constantly going on, there was stability and sameness and consistency because there weren't a lot of changes possible and you didn't live very long anyway so you stuck with what worked and dealt with the current part of your curriculum. 

Samuel Zeller- Unsplash.com

     But this time around it's different, far different, from before. I'm called to reinvent myself regularly and that call can't be ignored. Picture a nagging, finger wagging, "Get on with your lessons!" teacher and that is what I get if I ever try and slack off. I'm meant to create, can't not do it, it has to be done, and I'll be goaded into doing it eventually. ('for my own good').
     I might drag my feet some but at some point I'll pick up the challenge and deal with it, run with it, and wherever it leads me to, I've found over and over, is not a place of permanent rest but only a temporary one. "Okay, you've mastered that lesson. Are you ready for the next one?".
    ("I guess....") 
    "Good!"
    Then before you know it I'm being asked to step up again, and I will. What else is there to do, really? I'll sleep when I'm 'dead'.

My Playlist

     Been getting bored at work so when the sun goes down, I turn on the tunes. Having passengers on board turns my growling, rumbling, and creaking conveyance into a sort of musical laboratory then. I don't want to bother them but man, I need to raise the energy! 
    Most people like music, some don't. It's hard to gauge people's musical proclivities at first sight but there are few dislikers compared to the number of appreciators. As captain of my ship, I HAVE to stay sharp and focused and music is one of my tools. Coffee has lost its effectiveness by this point. Here are a few things I have learned about people and music: 

Alex Holyoake- Unsplash.com

      You can get away with playing just about any kind of blues music, people seem to like that, but you have to be careful not to have any kiddies on board because the lyrics in some blues songs can be, well, blue. Poppa and Momma might take offense to their chile being exposed to that sort of stuff, especially if their chile is a highly suggestive preteen. I turn the volume down so the young 'uns can't make out any problematic lines about drinkin', carousin', and fightin', or lines containing commonly used bluesy innuendos that adults understand (and their kids might). 
     Classical music tends to get really quiet followed by really loud so as a mood enhancer it's unpredictable, jarring, and thus only partially effective. But even so, most people like classical. There are never any lyrics for me to contend with but it can get kind of monotonous as a driver to be listening to it for long periods of time and ANY subtle quiet parts will be totally missed should the vehicle you're in leave the parking lot and actually start to roll. 
   

Larisa Birta- Unsplash.com

 Jazz. Ugh. I have some of that on my playlist but again, it increases and decreases in volume, can get annoyingly repetitive, and not all people like it. It's like elevator music, a lot of it. I'm working on a funky jazz playlist here and there but finding the correct songs to make up that playlist could take a while because I have to be very careful with the songs I pick. At the end of the ride I don't want my passengers all relaxed and unwilling to exit my conveyance. Too much jazz has that effect, I've found. 
    Rock. Oh, you have to be careful here. Business people can get offended quite easily should the delicate lines of customer respect be breached. Parents can raise an eyebrow at it, and people that are religiously opposed, but other than that rock 'n roll crosses all barriers and tends to make people happy. However, I search out the weird stuff and put that on my playlist too which tends to dampen this consistent and near universal enthusiasm. Also, like blues, the lyrics of some rock songs can be pretty darn offensive, to the point, and act like a kind of jab of the finger directly upon certain issues, particularly relationships, which might have any couples on board feeling a bit uncomfortable as if the song was about THEM but it's not, it's just what's playing. Get over it!
     (It's weird how some songs on my playlist come on just when certain people or groups of people get on my conveyance. Almost as if it's meant to be) 
     Country music is another crowd pleaser. Who hasn't heard classic country music? Real people wrote those songs, sang those songs, and folks just can't help but to like 'em but again, those lyrics from down home might just be offensive to some. 

   Also, to add to the choice of music and the lyrics contained within, critically important is the volume the music is played at. While a party atmosphere can raise spirits, too much volume can make people feel under siege and unable to hold a conversation. I try to make people feel that they have a choice, so I keep the music just-loud-enough. You can tell. 

Tao Jones- Unsplash.com

     Let me see if I can illustrate some songs here instead of just writing about generalities. First thing I'm going to do is list a few problem songs on my playlist, the kind where I have to turn the volume down but I like the melody:
     Good Mornin' Little Schoolgirl (Muddy Waters)
     Wang Dang Doodle (Howlin' Wolf)
     Drunk Again (Champion Jack Dupree)
     Second Hand Man (Carrey Bell & Junior Wells)
     Lucy Mae Blues (Buddy Guy)
     Dr. Feelgood (Aretha Franklin)
     Slip Of The Tongue (The Blasters)
     My Hometown (Girl Trouble)
     Sadness (Greg Brown)
    and that list could go on and on and on. Damn good music, problematic lyrics (but not for me!).
    And now here is a playlist that is inoffensive to everybody (so far as I can tell):
   Just about anything from Roy Orbison, Donovan, Johnny Cash, U2, The Guess Who, Dwight Yoakum, Bob Seger, The Derailers, Waylon Jennings, Three Dog Night, Bread, Stevie Wonder, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Moody Blues, Marshall Tucker, Lyle Lovett, and many, many others. 
     Note: I don't have many current songs on that playlist, it's pretty old in fact, but I'll get to those millions of new ones in the next lifetime.
    (Maybe!)

But, Seriously...

      As the call goes out for less thinking across this great land I propose a radically different approach. More thinking!
     Now by 'thinking' I mean contemplation, but that might be too big a word to start with, because the populace seems to have dumbed down some, so let's stay with thinking for now. When the great orange one throws out generalities as answers to problems, perhaps it might be then time to demand actual specific responses to issues? Ya think? Or would that be asking too much? Because as you know, managers can drone on and on without giving answers until you zone out at the conference table, start daydreaming about doughnuts, then at the conclusion of the meeting you can't remember a dang thing about what was said because nothing really was said or accomplished, except wasting your time, which used to be valuable. 
     Anyway, pick a subject, any subject that interests you, get knowledgeable about it and THEN compare what the experts, so-called, are saying about it, doing about it, and a whole new world opens up! Because now you're not one of the uninformed constituents, you are knowledgeable and can't be so readily deceived. Sidetracked. Bamboozled. Herded. 

Saskia Fairfull- Unsplash.com

     I know this may be a lot to ask, tearing you away from whatever seems to be more important, so you gotta set priorites. Ach- I sound like a teacher. But, seriously....

     ...it's a fine mess We The People have gotten ourselves into and so we gotta put our thinking caps on now, because we're being asked to put them on less. Think-while you still can! Ach- sounds like I'm sending out a call for action. 

     Which I am, because I think (actually contemplate), which is what you too can do too, as nascent ('recently having come into existence') thinkers, at some point when you choose to w-e-a-n yourselves away from the ones who claim to have done all the thinking for you so you can relax and see what's happenin' with The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, or who's frantically running around the supermarket at Guy's Grocery Games, or what the latest Dope $h!t videos are. 
     But, here's the good news- you can still go there. After you've thought a little about things you can always turn the TV back on and that sort of programming will be present. A good starter question for nascent thinkers might be "Why is there never anything on TV?"

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

       I am the poster child for coffee. I start every day with a cup or three of the stuff. Dark and black. The chaser to my Joe is an almond poppyseed muffin and no other muffin shall pass my lips so help me. No chocolate, no orange/cranberry, no banana, no double chocolate, no corn, no bran.
      Coffee is my starting fluid, Without it I am not complete. With it, I am whole. Can't stand the taste of tea, unless it's Earl Grey. I will drink that from time to time, but only in the afternoon. 
     Why only coffee, primarily, for me? I don't know. It's not considered to be a 'food' but for me it IS. 
     Lots of stores carry coffee, whole bean, which is the best, 'cuz you grind the beans and make the coffee fresh.

John Mark Smith- Unsplash.com

     My parameters for Joe: 
     Coffee MUST be made in a Bialetti espresso maker, a little stovetop contraption that you can buy for around forty bucks.  A Bialtetti makes the best Joe, better than a french press, better than drip, better than percolated, better than (shudder) instant. 
     The water is important. It must be the purest available, because I don't want any off flavors, especially chlorine, in my Joe. 
     Heat is critical because coffee has to be served piping hot. Iced coffee? An abomination. 
     Coffee must be black. No latte, no machiatto, no whipped cream, foam, mocha powder, cinnamon, nothing like that. No sugar. (That comes from the muffin, you see). 
    Coffee is kept in a thermos, a large one, that holds a lot of coffee. Just in case. 
    There have been days that, for whatever reason, coffee has not been available. Rough days, those. Perhaps a delay was experienced before coffee was procured. And woe to me if I be somewhere where the kind of coffee I like is not readily available, like in a cafe americain foreign country. "Excusez-moi, ou puis-je obtenir un cafe allonge? Rapide?" (Pardon me, where can I find good coffee, strong coffee, black coffee? Quick?).
    Tea, milk, water, or orange juice for breakfast? Not in this house. It HAS to be coffee.

Apples and Oranges

     Long time ago, when there were such things as printed magazines, I used to fancy myself a global player and read Forbes. The magazine that prided itself on being a Capitalist Tool. 
     Forbes offered a minion like me the view from the bridge, from the cockpit, from the chair at the head of the conference table. This wasn't minion talk here, this was grown up, responsible, business leader talk about .....
      .....facilities, if I could put a word to it. Employees were factors in facilities operation. Profit and loss computations were known in exactitude. The competition was mapped in detail- where their facilities were, how many of them they had, what processes they were using, and most importantly, what the future trends were. 

Patrick Fore- Unsplash.com

      "Gentlemen- are we going to expend capital to move a facility, build a facility, modernize a facility, write off an obsolete or failing facility, buy facilities from the competition, and Smithers- do you have your report on what they doing in China?" 
     "What is our political position? Current environmental regulations- how stringent? Who is on our leadership team over in Durham? Who can we get on our board from Bendex? Who is in charge of development in St. Louis? Can we put a spin on this water treatment issue we're having in Akron?".
       Man, it was pretty cool. This was the kind of stuff you NEVER heard as a minion. Minions were never given the big picture. Managers could forever claim that they were giving you the bigger picture but no, that kind of talk was only what they wanted you to hear because there were always other factors you weren't supposed to know about. 

Sharon McCutcheon- Unsplash.com

      Bottom line is, employees (minions) are costs. Costs drain profits. Management's position is always to reduce costs (try to marginalize or outright eliminate employees) in order to gain profits. No matter what the company tells you, this is the equation that the people around the table at the top are looking at. Thus, the levels of obfuscation. Minions know just enough to do their jobs, managers know more, upper level managers know more and so on, it is the old military style chain of command. As a minion, you could work for a company all your life and never know what in the hell is going on. You'll never be privy to the basic math, the actual profit and loss equation, the 'apples and oranges'. That kind of precision is always kept hidden from you. Not that you wouldn't understand it, because anything can be patiently explained, it's because such callousness towards fellow humans is what enables the people at the top to deftly manipulate their Capitalist Tools.
      Strong words, harsh opinion? No, just matter of fact observation of current, everyday accepted reality. This is how we, as a nation, and as much of the world, roll. Good or bad, it's what is. I certainly would like to see the day when such a system is no longer necessary. But until then, employees, stay agile, keep current, and try and keep yourself necessary to operations. I wish you the best of luck! You're gonna need it.

It's Over

     I saw two abandoned places on the news yesterday, each one abandoned for a different reason. If "growth, growth, growth" is humankind's mantra, then abandoned places seem especially odd in that light, and they are. 
     The first abandoned place was the Leilani Estates subdivision on the big island of Hawaii. An intrepid local was walking through the area and recording what he saw. 
     The formerly pleasant residential street he was walking on was lined with deep cracks, which made the road impassable for cars, though cars still could skirt the cracked areas by taking to the shoulders. But for how long? Seemed any drive up or down this street could be your last. 
     The power lines were down, due to some of the poles being burnt to ash, and where a house once stood there only remained lava mounds tinged with yellowish sulfur deposits. The lush greenery that once surrounded this house was brittle and browned, and the grass had taken on the color of straw. 
     Next to this house sat a few untouched, one next door and another across the street, somewhat higher in elevation, but would those residents ever come back? Good question for as our intrepid resident walked up the road to where it joined another at a 'T' intersection, in looking down that road to his left he could see haze about a quarter of a mile away. Volcanic fumes were in the air down there, and he, having experienced breathing such fumes before, said to the camera that he would no way be walking in that direction. 

Jakob Owens- Unsplash.com

     The second (nearly) abandoned place was the Memphis airport. It was originally a bustling place, serving over 11 million passengers a year. The Memphis airport served as a hub for Delta Airlines but upon some merger, I think it was the purchase of Northwest Airlines, Delta decided to operate out of its Atlanta hub only and the passenger count in Memphis dropped to 4 million a year. That still seems like a lot of people, and it is, but for the Memphis airport it meant a lot of empty gates where planes could be parked and a lot of empty concourses. The airport manager lamented that as an 'airport guy' he wasn't expecting to see anything but growth, crowded terminals, endless construction, upgrading, and expansion so it was hard for him to make the decision to shut areas of the Memphis airport down, mothball them, in effect. 
      Places that are abandoned like this don't usually make the news. They are forgotten, overlooked, discounted as being unnewsworthy. Not a lot of action taking place. They're anomalies in an otherwise very busy world. Curiosities. Asides. Eddies in an otherwise mighty river. A different kind of tourist attrraction, perhaps. An enterprising company could host niche tours to Places Where Nothing Is Really Happening At All.

The Outward Manifestation Of Belief

     Were I not so conditioned by my upbringing, I would have created a totally different reality for myself. This tenacity of belief about how things are, about the way things should be, has burdened me my entire life and I have been diligently working through it. 
      Dig- the factors that influence any one person's view of reality are so diverse and varied it borders on the phenomenal. It's a wonder that we as a species see eye-to-eye on most things, which we do, which lends credence to the theory of reincarnation (which to me is not a theory at all but merely common sense).
       Because, dig- how could we react so similarly if we hadn't had corresponding experiences? Maybe not this time around, but enough times to know. 

Trevor Cole- Unsplash.com

     Anyway, let's just focus on our present lifetimes. Talking to people, I am continuously amazed at how they grew up. Were they from a stable family? Were they only children or did they have siblings, and if so, what was their position in the family? First born, baby child, or somewhere in the middle?
     How far apart were the siblings in age from each other? Did they get along? Was it an all boy family, all girl, or was it mixed? 
     Were the parents married throughout their upbringing? Did they get divorced? Did one of them die? Were they raised by grandparents, aunts, or uncles? Did they move a lot? What did mom and dad do for a living?
      Where did they live? What were the neighbors like? Did they have neighbors? 
      Were the parents, one or both of them, abusive? Were they alcoholics, drug addicts, or criminals? Were the parents well adjusted professionals? Did they grow up in a mansion in the good part of town? 
      Were the parents role models that you absorbed every little nuance from, good or bad, because you needed to figure out how the world ran, or did you disregard them and go your own way, not tainted by what they said or did at all?
       To me, upbringing has a definite effect on kids, and it's pretty rare that you'll find a headstrong one that claims he or she wasn't affected.  We're ALL carrying stuff from the past is my view, and whatever we have created around us in the present is a result of that upbringing. Added to that are the current factors we are being continuously exposed to because you know that every time you get on the internet somebody somewhere in a secret lab is running an algorithm based on the choices you are making and is presenting you with an adulterated, custom-made webpage filled with ads for crap you happened to glance at briefly before realizing your mistake. Yikes!
      But, somehow we do it. We cope with all this social engineering and move forward. What else, really, CAN we do? Sign o' the times is we are data points, pixels on Google, Facebook, and Twitter's mosaic of reality. Will we eventually be just another flock of birds or school of fish turning on a dime because the media giants know our next moves?

Tiago Muraro- Unsplash.com

      I doubt it. We are too messed up, each of us, to be able to predict because we have all been infected with viruses called our childhoods and we will react according to those hidden programs for as long as we are alive, most of us. No matter how much processing we do, books we read, or workshops we attend we'll still have those programs running. There is no blanket solution for us because there is no baseline from which to start.
     To take this premise even further- common sense, remember- my view is that these kind of programs have been running in us for a LONG time, since we were originally born into physical reality, and they've only been added to since then. 
     So..... 
      ...humans may be suggestable, yes, but are they controllable? I don't think so. 

     Case in point- the evangelical Christians that have aligned with the vainglorious orange guy have just found themselves at odds with a splinter group of evangelicals called the Red Line Evangelicals, the meaning of 'red line' being that certain bibles have words written in red that are the ones that Jesus spoke. I have to laugh and laugh at this. The Red Line Evangelicals ask themselves "What would Jesus do?" rather than "What does the orange guy want?".
      What prompted THIS? Upbringing! Dig- somewhere, at some time, the Red Line Evangelicals ALREADY experienced somebody like the great orange one and saw that guys like him were false prophets!

Done

      I don't know if I have any gypsy blood in me but I do know this. When I am done with something I am done. Just this morning I woke up and thought "I am done", this coming after a series of events- dreams, feelings, a recent bout of extreme sickness, and the overall sense that what I have been doing for the last three years has run its course- (but I wasn't supposed to know that until this morning). 
     You could say that my being where I am and doing what I have been doing has been a setup. I truly believed that where I was at in life was The End, but no, I misinterpreted that. It was the end of a chapter! Now all sensor readings indicate that I am about to make a ninety degree turn. I actually have initiated the process of doing that, and having done this sort of thing many times before, I know how to do it. 
      My life has been like living in a MASH unit, ready to bug out at a moment's notice but Spirit is more elegant than the military and when I actually do bug out it will be an eased transition for the forces of synchronicity are with me. I know this sounds INCREDIBLY arcane, but it is at the same time incredibly obvious to me because once you get the download that you're done, you're DONE (and it's on to the next thing). 

Dion Tavenier- Unsplash.com

     I've left behind a lot of people in my day, people that thought I was like them, stable, fixed, settled (and stuck, I guess, too). Before bailing I tried to tell them the best way I could that I had to go and they kind of understood, in their way, which was all I could do given their understanding of how things work. Heck, we'll meet again, in some other time, place, or space. I KNOW we will. Relax!  
     But, unlike my leaving times in the technologically ancient past, I can stay in touch a lot easier now, should I choose to exercise that ability. You can't really go anywhere on this planet and not be in touch anymore. It is very easy to make a Skype phone call, you know. So....... ...guess I'll know where the hell I am going when I get that part of the picture, which I haven't got yet.
     "Wait! You tell me you are going to go and you don't even know where you're going?!"
     "Yes. That's what happens when you are DONE" 
      "What will you do?"
      "I don't know"
      "How will you live?"
      "I will. But as to the particulars....."
       "This is crazy!"
      "I know. You have to have a lot of trust. The fact that I clearly understood that I was DONE tells me all that I need to know. I wouldn't have gotten THAT without having previously developed a high degree of understanding, coupled with trust"
       The rest will happen when it happens.

The News

     Right now it's 'pre-exposure' time. I haven't read The News for a whole day(!) and so I'm a little behind on current events. My news sources are some stalwart old favs (Huffington Post, New York Times) though I could, depending on the need for research and following links, be directed to many publications.
     I never read Faux News, which to me is nothing but propaganda mixed with the infiltration of evangelical Christianity. Exposure to that sort of thinking to me is like choosing to ingest poison. But then again, so is merely glancing at what passes for 'news' on many sites, which leads to the question of "What IS 'The News'?" Who determines what gets published?
     Sensationalism gets published. Tragedy gets published. Dissent gets published. Problems get press. Peace, harmony, good stuff- where's the money ('the interest') in that?
     Who wants to read about non-problems? There's nothing to think about there, nothing to consume the mind, nothing to obsess about, ponder over, or work with to try and hash out a solution. There is no imminent danger, no adrenaline rush to be had, no pot of gold ('the solution') at the end of the rainbow. Nope. Just boring old peace. 
     Peace, unlike The News, doesn't bring with it a sense of sadness, like twilight is approaching, melancholy is looming, shadows are gathering, or darkness is encroaching. Peace overtakes you, but it does not envelop you like a fog whenever the roar and din of the world ceases for a second.

rawpixel- Unsplash.com

     In peace, you may ask, where are the discordant relations between people, between countries? Where is the competition and inevitable conquest? Who wins, who struggles, who overcomes, who goes out to battle any number of entities- like one's family members! The people in the office! The neighbors! The neighborhood! The people in the country that don't understand! It's not there in peace. Sorry......
     Can it be said, then, that "The News does nothing but present problems, and even when it purports to show solutions the hint that this is only TEMPORARY always underlies the story?".  

     Yes! Keep the readership/viewership interested! 

      Like: Did my sports team win today? Yes! Will they win TOMORROW? Stay tuned! 

     Don't ever rest on your laurels, citizen. There might not be a lot going on today but challenges lie ahead, probably around the next bend in the river. We apologize for having to tell you that, but that's our job. We're The News. 
     However, if you watch The News knowing that what you are viewing is like a movie, like entertainment, then you can remain detached from it. This I endeavor to do, always. I take in the data, but choose what in it contains value. Truly newsworthy topics have to be proven, corroborated by different sources, well thought out and presented. Sensationalism finds its way to the trash, propaganda gets discounted, urgency gets watered down, and overall, the realization that other than natural events, all that is being presented is man-made tempers my reaction to what is viewed.

     If it's a human-caused situation it can be fixed. And if it can be fixed.....

     ......then FIX IT! Don't keep droning on and on about it!

The Players

    Who are these people in my dreams that I am interacting with? What are we doing together? 
     Recurring dreams, months now, near instantly forgotten upon waking with only the fleeting memories remaining. I am interacting with a varying in size but not so much in membership group of people and what we are doing seems purposeful but I'm not given the why. 
       I can't tell you where we are located but maybe it's an energetic thing, where it doesn't matter so much the location as to our shared INTENTION. Intention, focused, is being used to further a purpose. Upon that we are all agreed. 
     Then, every once in a while, after dreams of this sort, I wake up like today feeling good and I don't know why. Invigorated. Settled. Calm, peaceful about things, sure. Ready to charge ahead, certain that the next step is ready to appear in my path JUST before my foot hits the ground. Like that, this is. Revealed to me piecemeal and it couldn't happen in any other way. 

Well, maybe not as big as this guy, but it feels like that sometimes

     Necessary, it also is, for me to place myself out into the world for the way in which these events unfold calls for my presence there. I can't just sit at home because what comes to me I need to participate with in some manner for the unfolding to happen correctly. Sounds pretty arcane, huh? 
     It's like I'm a politician, a social scientist, a city planner, a community builder, an advice bestower, a bit player, and a very unique and essential character actor, just by being me! Pretty cool. Damn good work if you can find it, which I seem to have. 
     All this takes place on etheric levels first. It is developed there, honed there, and practiced there before it appears in the physical. Team effort. No one takes credit yet everyone benefits. 
     How can you not feel good about that? It's 180 degrees opposed from the way things happen in The World, the muggles world, the mundane world, where individuals take credit (and the spoils) for their accomplishments. 
     So, I'm feeling good about things today. Yeah. 
     Right on.

Lava Cam

      Few things are more mesmerizing than watching a live lava flow, which is what I was doing this morning. Civilbeat.org had a livestream of the Kiluea eruption. 
    Words can't do justice to what the experience is of seeing lava flow in real time. It would make a great meditation, only there are occasional explosions. 
    Also included are typical Hawaiian sounds of crowing roosters, singing birds, and the occasional gecko; passing helicopters, plus the sounds of the videographer taking camera position suggestions on his headset. 
    From the video I have seen that there are places where the lava is moving so fast you couldn't outrun it. It is also hard to capture any sense of scale because whaterver used to be around the lava flow has been destroyed. Some of the lava fountains are a hundred feet high- I think. 

    It also appears, from watching this morning's video, that enough lava is flowing to make it to the sea, which is about, I'm guessing, a couple of miles from where the videographer is based on a hillside houses's porch. If the lava has reached the sea (which I can't see from the view afforded) it means that the coast road is cut off and there is no way around the mountain for the locals, who are now trapped on one side of the flow or another. 
    I can't begin to calculate the volume of lava that Kiluea is producing, any sense of scale is gone here. Truly a spectacle. The fact that the lava is moving indicates that whatever pressure is driving the flow from beneath the surface of the earth is vast. Humbling this is, awe inspiring. And also calming, for it suggests that the vast pressures beneath the surface are being alleviated in a measured manner. 
     Volcanic eruptions in Hawaii can last for decades. While this one may or may not yet be at its peak, it is sure to continue in some form long after these initial dramatic flows.  

    Definitely check out this video if you want to see a lava flow in real time, and not just a brief clip shown on the major news sites. It reminds me of an old "Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt' video. Back in the day, on Sunday mornings, CBS reporter Charles Kuralt (traveling with his crew in a couple of motorhomes) would set up a camera somewhere and just let it run. It might be on the banks of the Mississippi, in the middle of a wheatfield on the great plains, or looking out upon a mountain lake. The camera would just sit there, recording the ambient sounds of nature. There was nothing else like it. Well, this is 'Sunday morning with the Civilbeat.org lava cam'. Enjoy and be amazed.

Royal Wedding

       Lots of tears are going to be shed in Britan today. Some will be tears of joy but a lot of them will be shed for another reason as the commoners watch the royals pass by. The commoners will get a glimpse of paradise but alas, that paradise won't be for them. 
       Common folk in Britan have to toil and labor to make ends meet, just like anywhere else. They drive the cabs, teach the schoolkids, work in the factories, and staff the halls of government in some sort of public service capacity but n'er do the Royals soil their hands and that's what all that secondary crying will be about. 

Church Of The King- Unsplash.com

         Sure, being a royal comes with a few burdens not bestowed upon the commoners. Royals are continuously scrutinized by the press, are restricted to certain lavishly appointed areas, and must be on their best behavior at all times. But I think the average commoner facing a Monday might without much forethought jump at the chance to join the royal family, if such a remote possibility existed. 
         And here we have such a long shot on public display, Meghan Markle, an American actress, divorced, of mixed race, and while not exactly poor like Cinderella she's somehow been able to move in the right circles and catch the eye of Prince Harry. Now she's in.
         Never have to do HER own laundry again! 
         So welcome her into the family, Brits. She'll be waving at you commoners from a balcony somewhere for the rest of your lives, constantly reminding you how happy she is not to be you but maybe some solace in this is that she seems to be a good person, her husband too, and they might actually use their positions to do some good in the world. 
         Harry's brother Prince William and his wife Kate are doing the family proud, what with three kids produced. Harry and Meghan- you'll be on the baby train soon too. The Queen mum will love you for it because I don't think she wants to see Prince Charles on the throne. 

King S Church International- Unsplash.com

          Prince William and his wife look like the stellar couple, don't they? I can't say they have accomplished anything noteworthy so far but they make for a great photo op and methinks that after baby time is over William is going to kick in and make his mark. He'll be doing this carefully though, because he's under the tall shadow of Queen Elizabeth and she still rules. Quite a presence, that one. 
          Over here in America, we have a brash, rude, and uncultured lout at the helm who would like to be regarded with reverence and honor like the Queen is but that ain't gonna happen. You can take the man out of Jersey but you can't take the Jersey out of the man. I say this because even though our 'guiding light' is from Manhattan he acts and talks like a Jersey hood. Sure, he gets white glove treatment at the his house but that is because of his position. The Royals get white glove because they were BORN royal. Big difference there. Or, they married into it and thus, voila! As if touched by a magic wand, they BECAME royal! 
     Take solace in this though, Brits. The Royals may be a drain on the tax coffers in some eyes but the Queen mum knows that the royal show brings more money in than goes out. Have you ever been to England? The place is simply crawling with tourists! Damn island is like a giant, real life theme park. So much has happened in that little country that there is something there to see for everyone. The royals are part of that legacy, part of the show, but they're not in the past, like much of the sights in England are. The royals are history in real time. They might not ever be visible, but they're THERE. Somewhere. Behind a hedge, on the other side of a wall, past a gate, at the end of a long driveway. 
     So, Godspeed Harry and Meghan. Do your part, make some babies, be the new royals. I think there is some magical fairy dust in William and Harry's genes that was bestowed upon them by their mother, Princess Diana. Her progeny are bound to do something good in the world. Can't you just feel it?

Another tragedy in the making

      I am presently reading a book, exhaustingly researched and painstakingly written, about the Sioux indians. The Sioux were not from the great plains, they were originally woodland indians based in Minnesota who were pushed westward by encroaching tribes from the east, those tribes being driven out of their territories by the arrival of whites. 
     The Sioux were pragmatic, survival was uppermost on their minds and, once pushed out onto the great plains, they discovered great herds of buffalo, horses, and firearms all at about the same time. These three elements enabled their society to flourish for about a hundred years. Other tribes were attempting to prosper as well, but the Sioux were dominant. They were a warrior culture and they ruled. They captured huge swaths of territory and controlled it until being overwhelmed, eventually, by a greater number of better armed warriors swarming in from the east. 
     What is interesting about this history is, given the conditions of survival that must be met, how societies will form around and then justify specific means of survival. The Sioux used the tools at their disposal to their fullest possible extent. Is such a thing true today?

Jenelle Ball- Unsplash.com

       I turn to our present day system of governance and look to see correlations there. Are the tools available being maximized to ensure survival? Yes, they are. But, unlike the Sioux model, where survival meant survival of the tribe- this coming from the absolute understanding, in their nomadic society, that everyone had to work as a team and hoarding was impossible- the present day survival strategy seems to be to individually capture and hoard. In this way control is gained. 
      But, as in any system, forces act upon it to break it down. Change occurs. The present day hoarding model- control by the few- might very well be approaching its demise. Society at large is already greatly dissatisfied with their lot and asks for more. This is not being provided. How long can the ones at the top continue to play the shell game and hide the real need to keep accummulations of wealth away from the masses? In which direction will this play go? It is sure to transform, nothing is static, though those at the top try to make it so. 
     The Sioux were a society based on consumption. They had no stores and lived only for conquest. It was all they knew HOW to do, and it worked.  When their territory declined, so did they. Could the same fate befall the capturers of our day, the 1%? Has the point of maximum capture been reached? What then? 
      Control by the few appears to be the only way that those few know HOW to survive. The concept that such a state is NECESSARY keeps this structure in place. Survival of nations and economies depends upon it, we are told. Is it? And if so, how long is this 'guidance' required? World opinion is strongly opposed to the 1% model. Do not the 99% now hold the tools to make decisions that would benefit them directly? Can't we vote on many of our current issues using our computers? 

     What need then, of legislators, answering to the 1%?
     Something to think about.

!#@&$*% managers!

     I heard this from an upset customer at work once, after he had an encounter with one of the managers there. "!#@&$*% managers! They're all the same!" he growled.
     After he left, and I got to thinking about it, it seemed so right and so true. They ARE all the same! I mentally reviewed as many manager encounters that I could recall and they all fit the same general pattern. 

     A good asset to have for any company is a manager at the top of his manager game. A seasoned pro. Because with a guy like that on your team, ANYTHING can be explained away. Customers can't win with a guy like this. Arguing is futile, and 'coming to an agreement' means that you are going to lose, because managers are hired guns for the company and their allegiance is with the big and powerful company, not with paltry little you. 
     Let's expand this concept out to the whole of the U.S. of A. We have a particular management team in place right now that embodies the epitome of the American attitude, which used to be something more honorable but now has degenerated into shamelessness. 

     Our managers serve 'The Company' in various ways, all of them nakedly shameless, but fitting the 'American spirit' to a T. Americans, we are presently led to believe, are audacious, brash, bold, brazen, flagrant, high-handed, immoral, improper, outrageous, rude, unabashed, unprincipled, arrant, barefaced, cheeky, immodest, impudent, incorrigable, insolent, overbold, and unblushing. We charge in and get 'er done, we don't take prisoners, we lead, not follow, and any kind of restraint we may exhibit is a far distant second to winning at everything. 

Ruthson Zimmerman- Unsplash.com

      Thus, we have our present day managers serving 'The Company' and The Company loves 'em. Managers get bonuses and perks from doing their jobs, bonuses and perks that the rank and file never get wind of. The best thing you can hope for as a member of the rank and file is to be left alone.
      Another conceptual fact is that managers come and go but The Company survives. There are always manager candidates waiting in the wings to sell their souls. 
       So look to The Company then. Who is wanting something? Who wants to get their way? The managers will see to it that it gets done but The Company won't be visible. The Company is actually the shameless one here, not the managers. The managers have just been turned. They probably weren't born unethical, but they learned that in order to ascend shameless behavior was rewarded. 
     Why is shamelessness so prized? Because acting shamelessly get things done, number one, and gets you the biggest win, number two. You NEVER get such lopsided gains working by committee.

Sifting, Sifting, Sifting...

     Used to be that bands released albums, and some of the singles off of those albums would become hits. The others would be forgotten attempts at making the playlist. B sides, the industry called them. 
      Bands would really go to work in the studio to craft an album, because you had to put your best stuff out there. How many people were going to buy your stuff or be interested if what you put out was mediocre? You only had a few shots at stardom.
      Music was a VERY competitive business. Airplay made or broke you. Lots of people I was around wanted to be in a band but the reality of it was music was a low paying grind for most bands and years could go by before, or if ever, you broke through to the big time. Music was a dream, a high school, early college days dream. And then you got a job, got married and maybe had kids, and then it was over. 
     Had to pay the bills. 
     Has this changed? Is the music business now any different from back then? I turned to Spotify to find out.     
     Spotify is like a monstrous record label. It hits you, the consumer, with a wall of musical choices. New material is added regularly. 'Creative talent' abounds. But, unless you're listening to this kind of mainly current stuff and not, like I do, listening to old favorite music from the past, approaching the Spotify playlist is rather daunting. Because, each song is three minutes, more or less, right? Since I don't know hardly any of these artists, I have to sample each song to find out if it gets a thumbs up or not and that takes time. Back in the day, talent scouts would haunt the clubs and search for new talent. If they thought you had the right stuff they might sign you to a record contract. But nowadays, you don't need to be discovered by a label to get your stuff out there. There are 'distributors of content', more or less. As an artist, you sign with them, they take a cut, and you use their platform to reach the masses. The consumers job is finding out if what is offered suits them. In other words, the sifting hasn't been done. 
      Drudgery, this is! Hours could pass in this way, merely sifting, without any truly worthwhile results.
      I just checked the 'new releases' category on Spotify. Insane! Albums upon albums to sift through. Who are these people? I haven't a clue, most of them. I suspect that if I took on the task of sifting through the entire new release playlist that by the time I got done.... .....there would be another one to sift through! Am I a music enjoyer, or a sifter?

Caleb Woods- Unsplash.com

      Far as I can tell, there is nobody who's opinion I trust that is pre-listening to this stuff. It's not on the radio, and if it is, it's a one shot and rather obscure event because the dj's at the station are faced with the same task as me, sifting through the massive new releases database. And as we all know, musical tastes vary from person to person, so could there be people out there that are music recommenders, you know, sifters, that have done the work for me? 
      So I went to 'music recommendations' and there are, sort of, 'services' out there. One is called Pitchfork. I tried that and nope, not the same musical tastes as me. 
       But, from just doing a little bit of further research, I found out that this animal called Spotify has a playlist 30 million songs deep. 20,000 songs are added DAILY, and of the 30 million songs currently on the site, four MILLION of those have never been played once! 
      Let's see here- suppose I was crazy enough to try and take on listening to the four million songs that have never been played once on Spotify. How long would that take? 
      Four million times three minutes equals 12,000,000 minutes. 
      12,000,000 minutes divided by 60 equals 200,000 hours.
      200,000 hours divided by 24 equals 8,333 days
      8,333 days divided by 365 equals 22.83 years. 
      OMG!