Lightness Of Being

    One of the joys of my job is that I get to be around kids every now and again, kids of all ages. I don't have any kids of my own and didn't want any 'cuz I figured the world was doing a good enough job of populatin' and also because I had 'been there, done that' lifetimes ago and this time around I was going to place my focus elsewhere, which I did. 
This has made me ageless in a way (something I wrote about once before) because I don't have a measuring stick like (God forbid!) my son is this old and my two daughters are this old (which I hear adults my age say a lot). I say 'God forbid' in the sense that "God forbid I should have three kids 'cuz I can't imagine it!" because whoa- isn’t raising kids a hellacious, daunting, fearsome, and most times (crazier still) voluntary taking on of work? But you oughta see what I see every day. 
There are plenty of volunteers for raising babies! They populate the airport in much higher concentrations than anywhere else (save schoolyards) so if you have any doubts that the number of people willing to have kids is less, that can be a real eye opener. 
Anyway, since I didn't have kids of my own I haven't really been around them much for decades. But in my present job, there they are- newborns, toddlers, precocious three to five year olds, regular kids from six on up to about twelve, awkward early teens, and then older pre-adult teens with that attitude of disdain that they tend to have. 

Exhausted after a full afternoon of doing absolutely nothing important

Blake Meyer- Unsplash.com

I see a lot of kids and I see a lot of parents and I can tell what kind of people the parents are by the way their kids act. It's a joy to me to see well-adjusted, happy kids but it hurts some to see kids who are withdrawn and guarded because that tells me that they haven't been treated very well. I do what I can to make those ones' day better but I can't help 'em anymore than that. 
My fav kids are the three-to-five year olds. Lord Jesus they are amazing. Their parents might not always think so, they look kind of tired, bored, and weary sometimes. "Enough with the cuteness already!" the parents are thinking, 'cuz they have to deal with the little darlings when they're not being adorable and are being 'difficult', but damn do those little guys brighten up the mood nearly every time they're around.
For example: If I get a group of just adults together they can vary between being clipped and hardly talkative to each other to positively buzzing (which is rare) but the kind of stuff they talk about is adult stuff because you know they have to represent. 
But get just one of those three-to-five year old angels onboard and little sparkles, I swear, fill the air. They approach whatever they're experiencing with a sense of absolute wonder as if they are experiencing it for the very first time, which they probably are, and all of a sudden the world is a magical place. Many adults have totally forgotten how to see things like that but I never really did so I can relate to kids. We're kin, though we aren't. We're kin in that we share a secret which enables us to laugh and play at the drop of a hat because we know the world really isn’t a serious place. Sure, there are grown up things that have to be done and super important rules about physical safety and survival that have to be followed but a lot of that 'other' grown up stuff is meant to dampen, control, subdue, and condition people. Fortunately with the little ones none of that 'other' stuff has taken yet. They're still free, wild, enthusiastic, trusting, open, and naturally kind, like the adults used to be, until they learned how not to be, or hid those parts of themselves away.

Now understand, I wouldn't want to be around kids all the time. I just like to take 'em in small doses because yeah, I gotta admit it, I'm not really into that much frivolity and silliness. I like being an adult. But if I ever get lost in adulthood, or have become jaded from dealing with dour, businesslike adults at work, kids serve as instant reminders of just how lost I've become.

The best possible antidote for lostness is me doing my job, a three-to-five year old kid, that kid's parents, and a grandparent. Let the young parents take care of business, which they, with firm parental resolve and grim determination, adamantly insist on doing themselves. Mom will muscle with her personal stuff and the multiple bags that Moms always lug around, while Dad tries to figure out where to grab the damn carseat while he’s at the same time struggling with two big, heavy suitcases.

That gives the rest of us a little time to play!

Conditioning

It has come to my attention that I have not been paying attention so much to that which is all around, because I have gotten sooo used to it. This is called conditioning. 
     Conditioning is ubiquitous in our society. It is a way to steer people and processes. Employers use it a lot. 
I would say in a lot of employers' cases, the overall conditioning is 'don't expect much'. ‘Don't think that the workplace can be like home’. ‘Block that possibility out, employees’- and employees do. Employees live in two worlds, really, the one they call home, and the one they call work. It is a rare one indeed who wants to be at work more than at home. Why? Because the work arena is anything but homey. No wonder employees can't wait to get off of work and that they race on the highways back to wherever home is. They want comfort, beauty, quiet, clean, and all the other things that home is. While they all understand that the workplace can never really be home, most of them sense that the workplace can be made more tolerable. 
But, making it better costs money. Anything that costs money has to be approved. Precedents may be set! Caring might be exhibited in an environment where caring is usually doled out by the spoonful. Think I'm exaggerating? Here's an example for you: Most workers want everything. And they want it now. The typical employer response to that is "I will provide you with just enough training, equipment, and manning for you to get your job done, and your reward for dealing with all that is I will buy you pizza!”
  No wonder employees run for the hills the moment they're freed, only to return in the morning for more of the same. 
This is conditioning and it is pervasive. Are many employees disgruntled? You bet. 

Lots of P. I. meetings today….

Amy Syiek- Unsplash.com

But from businesses’ standpoint, they have to have the situation set up in a way that enables them to run their processes safely and efficiently. Employees understand that. They know that the employers are not going to be able to have sofas in a steel mill's foundry, but they also know that they could put them in the break rooms. Could the employees receive some things that would improve their worksite experience, these things being site-determined? If that was done, maybe they wouldn't want to bolt at the end of their shifts. 
Employers can be notoriously cheap when it comes to providing such things, yet they promote 'job satisfaction'. From what I’ve seen and heard, they’re gonna have to do better than that. 
Perhaps if employers got away some from the spartan military barracks mindset, the 'just enough' mindset, and put a little of the comfort of home into their workspaces and areas, site specific, of course, employees would actually enjoy being at work more. Gonna have to figure that out, employers, facility managers. See what works. Here's a motivator for you- think of all the cost benefits of having less turnover, happier workers, less absenteeism, and the spillover effect of happier customers. All this can be yours by investing in visual and physical improvements to the employee areas. Noise reduction. Air conditioning. Better bathrooms. Cleaner facilities. Better seating. Maybe a little music. Better food choices. I could go on. In short, the types of things employees have at home. That's where your workers really want to be, so bring home to them. 
You don't have to go all the way to man cave comfort level, that would be counterproductive 'cuz once there they wouldn't want to leave. But make the break room more inviting than being in a bus station and I think your workers will be more productive. Give 'em restaurant-delivered food options for lunch instead of lunch pails and vending machines. Give 'em some space in the break area. Stuff like that. Ask them what they want and then invest a little money into employee comfort and you won't have to be hosting Process Improvement meetings in some sterile conference room over a coupla boxes of cheapo donuts. Sound good?

I think everybody would like that.

The Ides Of March, 2020

I've been following astrology for decades and have seen a lot of different astrological configurations. Every now and again the planets line up in such a way that their effects are heightened. But not every configuration has a big impact.

There are eight planets (excluding earth) in traditional astrology, plus the sun and the moon. Some astrologers add in extra objects like asteroids and the North and South 'nodes' of the moon, and other such things, but I have enough to deal with in the traditional style so I don't go any farther than that. 
Keep it simple, I say. And so let's look at the planets, the sun, and the moon and see if we can calculate their impact by their speed of movement. As seen from the earth, the moon moves the fastest, it passes through each sign of the zodaic in about two and a half days, which is roughly a month. Next is the sun. It moves a little over a degree a day, thus the 360 degree circle of the zodiac, and the 365 days of the year. Mercury accelerates ahead of the sun, then backtracks in retrograde movement about three times a year. Venus does the same thing, only in a slower fashion, it goes retrograde about every eighteen months. 
Mars is the next fastest planet, it keeps up a steady pace but eventually appears to stand still and then move backwards, relative to the earth. Mars goes retrograde about every two years for ten weeks.
I call these aforementioned objects 'fast movers'. Their effects don't last very long because these ‘planets’ don't stick around very long. Unless any of these ‘planets’ goes stationary, that period at the very beginning and end of a retrograde movement, they won't be lingering on any degree for long in your astrological chart. 
But now we move on to the heavies, the slow movers, which can take years to transit areas of your natal chart, and the further out we get, the slower they move. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Some astronomers want to remove Pluto from the list of planets, saying that it is too small, but astrologers say it is a planet and I tend to agree with that. It didn't show up by accident in the first place, and it does a handy enough job of representing the underworld, so let’s keep it there. 
So- continuing here, every person born on earth has an astrological chart that is cast at the minute they arrive, their natal chart. This chart shows where every planet, the sun, and the moon were at the time you were born. This chart represents who you are, what challenges you are going to face, where your strengths lie, and all other sorts of initial life path information. There are plenty of books out there that go into detail about this. 
There's also a lot of interpretation out there, a lot of argument, the use of different astrological charts, calculations, etc, etc. Keep it simple, see if it represents you, and move on already. 
  Ok. Now that I've said all that, I say this- the heavies are the long term influences, the 'grinders', and their effects are felt for years. Most astrological aspects, I've noticed, tend to rise like the incoming tide. Their influence is felt long before, as they are approaching, and the peak of their influence comes just before the planet hits the exact degree on your chart. After that, it's pretty much over. The influence has been felt and from there on, the lesson has been learned, hopefully, one way or another, and the aspect lessens in importance. I've found I'm much more affected during the approach to exactness than I am during the actual period when aspects are exact, and that I really don't care much during the slow decline that happens afterwards. 

Gotta like the Romans. Men were noble then.

Nils- Unsplash.com

Your natal chart is a fixed set of, in astrological terminology, 'planetary' positions. The next thing we are concerned about are things called 'transits'. These are the positions that the planets are currently in, in relation to the fixed planets of your natal chart. 
Say if your natal Mercury is at 2 degrees Capricorn, like mine is, the transiting planets in your transit chart may or may not be having an effect on that position. Effects are determined by the transiting planets’ positions relative to the fixed positions of the planets on your natal chart. Strong positions are called 'aspects'. These represent particular angles that a transiting planet is making with a fixed planetary position.
Transit angles are 'Trines' (120 degrees, a favourable aspect), 'Squares' (90 Degrees, a challenging aspect), 'Oppositions' (180 degrees apart, kind of a standoff), and 'Conjunctions' (0 degrees apart, an amplification, or dilution of power, depending on which planets are in conjunction).
    There are other, minor angles that come into play, and there are usually numerous angles happening at any one time in a transit chart, so interpreting these charts is something best done by somebody who has been doing it for a long time and has somehow managed to be able to interpret all this data. Because it's not all just aspects and angles! There are also astrological houses, the positions of the planets in those houses, detrimental positions of planets, exalted positions, nodes (as mentioned before), ascendants, descendants, degrees of influence, waxing aspects, waning aspects, rare and unusual formations like the 'Grand Trine' harmonic convergence of August 24, 1987, 'Grand Crosses', 'T-squares', 'Yods', and the like. It can be exhausting. 
So, moving on, something is coming up. Slow movers are grinding through Capricorn or heading that way. Two planets are already in Capricorn- Pluto and Saturn. They will be joined by Jupiter in 2020, and then in March of that year, by Mars for awhile, and all of this is taking place on or within a few degrees of my natal sun! Is that good? Not so good? I don't know. I think it is significant, though. But not just for me. Everybody is going to have this concentration of heavies on some degree of their chart, and save for fast moving Mars, this confluence of planets is going to be in place throughout 2020. 
The last time Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter were all together at the same point in the sky was way back in 1285. For that configuration to reappear, and tie in with the degree of the sun in my natal chart in 2020 is incalculable and makes the meeting sound full of portent and at the same time somewhat ominous, does it not? But, I've survived, as has everybody else, numerous powerful astrological configurations before and while some of them have been stressful periods, it's all been for the good, right?

Right?       

Chop Wood, Carry Water

700 A.D. 
"Ah, that old nag in the village! What does she know about planting rice? "Wait until three days after the full moon". Nonsense! I plant when the water is high because what if the rains fail? And my neighbor's dog- what a nuisance! Up all night, yapping at this and that. I'd move from this village if I could!".

It was for the purpose of stopping this incessant mind chatter that Zen was practiced, for it was said to lead one to Satori, or enlightenment. After Satori, this same hypothetical villager, named Po, would be seen calmly walking around, his mind as still as the surface of the koi pond. Nothing would rattle him for long before his mind resumed stillness. In the state of supreme illumination, movement was still occurring, the hands and arms were steering the ax as it fell, and the body was occasionally strained by the weight of water buckets suspended over the shoulders by means of a stout staff, but the mind was relaxed and enjoying the present moment. Yet, strangely, the mind was not numb but very, very alert.

  Hark! A bird in the forest! Footsteps approaching upon the village path! The distant rumble of thunder! A voice singing in the rice paddies! A swarm of bees by the jasmine flowers! 

What a blessed life. Simple, uncluttered, primal, right, and perfect. Perhaps after dinner in the evening a song would be sung for Po’s family by a local musician, a lilting song accentuated by adept bending of the notes on an (organic, of course) reed flute. 

Doesn’t this make you feel peaceful?

Faye Cornish- Unsplash.com

2018 A.D.
That same villager, Po, reincarnated to serve the heathen horde in present day Tech Village and had trouble staying out of monkey mind. All around him was noise- cars, car alarms, sirens, airplanes, trains, rap music, classical music, notification chimes, bells, and gongs, rude shouting people, slick games that work to compel and involve (the latest is 'Red Dead Redemption 2', seven years in the making), 24/7/365 media access, binge watching, social media, upgrades, keeping up, and soooo much more, most of it inorganic.
Amazingly, and to the bafflement of naysayers, Po has overcome this. His mind is still still, as unrippled as it was over a millennia ago. How does he do it?
  (Let's ask!)

‘Rick’ interviews Po on the Satori Times You Tube channel:

"Po, can I call you ‘master’?"
"It's already been done, Rick. Just call me Po"
"'K, Po it is. Po, how the frickin' frack do you keep your head on straight in the face of this barrage? Wasn't it easier back in the day?"
"Yes, it was, Rick. Much easier. You know, I've been interviewed a lot lately, once news of my former status leaked out. I tried to keep a low profile but my NowAGram account…. …was hacked"
"So we heard!"
"Yes (chuckles). Welcome to the 21st century! Anyway, it can be done. Remaining untouched and unsullied by The World even deep within this godawful din"
"Um... ..for our listeners and viewers, how exactly is that sort of thing accomplished? Remaining centered?"
  "It's easy, Rick. You don't have to turn anything off at all"
  "I was expecting a totally different answer!"
  "So is everybody else. The trick is, don't give what is happening out there any importance. That's all"
"All you have to do?"
"Right, yup, you got it. Just don't pay it any attention. Attention is key. I understand that you have to give things your attention. That’s proper, that’s right, that’s practical. Just don’t pay them too much attention. That's your only power in these times. Get educated. Figure out how to do that. Discard everything else"
"Sounds too easy!"
"It is easy. Just disregard the junk!"
"But what if you don't know what the junk is?"
"Start questioning. Begin exploring. Hash things out. That's all I can tell you. True intent will steer you down the correct path. Just ask that what you give attention to has integrity. Is important. Adds value. Those are your clues. There are others. That which does not fit those kinds of intentions will disappear from your view, or you won't find interest in them anymore. All you gotta do to get the ball rollin' on this is ask"
"Po, I'd also like to ask you about....."
"No more questions! I just gave you the answer"
"But...."
"No buts. We're done here. Get to work!".

I felt like Po had just struck me over the head with a Zen stick but you know, that approach is so typical of those guys. Straight up, no chaser.

Fulfillment Center

I caught word that there were such things as Fulfillment Centers so I set out to find one. It was not what I anticipated. When I came upon one, it looked like a giant warehouse and was located in an industrial park. The people walking towards and away from it hardly looked fulfilled.
    "Where can I find fulfilllment?" I asked the guard at the Fulfillment Center's security gate, long as I was there.
    He looked at me like I was slightly off and in need of help. "Try about two miles down the street. I think you might find fulfillment there" he offered.
    So down the street I went where I came across a church. I went inside but nobody was there. Exiting, I came upon a man outside. 
"I'm looking for fulfillment. Can you help me?"
"Sure" he said. "I've got Oxy, I've got heroin, I've got meth....."
"Drugs?! Are you crazy?" cried I alarmed, while backing away. 
"You said you were lookin'" he shrugged before waving me off. "Just tryin' to he'p ya, bro!"
  An ad in an employment office's window I passed somewhat later caught my eye. "Fulfilling careers. Now hiring!" it read. 
  "Sounds good!" I thought, and entered therein.
  "I'm looking for fulfillment" I said to a man sitting at a desk. 
"Welcome. Have a seat, I'll be right with you. Got to make a call" He dialed someone and started talking. He was very busy during the call, multitasking with papers on his desk, a computer, a scheduling board behind him, sipping coffee, and even taking a bite out of a doughnut here and there. The call concluded after about ten minutes. He set the phone down, took a long slurp of Joe, then without even asking me my name or interviewing me said "I think I can help you. Are you available weekends, holidays, nights, swing shift, split shift, and basically any other time we might need you?"
"If that will bring me fulfillment, I guess I'll do it....."
"Ok then! See you 7:00 p.m. sharp, Saturday night! Go to this address!" He scribbled an address on a piece of paper and gave it to me, then sort of rushed me out the door, saying he had a ton of other calls to make.
Boy was that ever a scam. I spent Saturday night feeling very unfulfilled. He lied! 

“How about overnights? Can you work those?”

rawpixel- Unsplash.com

The next morning, I sat around my house and with nothing else to do, I turned on the TV. Sports fans seemed to be fulfilled so I went to the nearest stadium. There was a game there this afternoon.
"Rah Rah Rah! Go team!" I shouted with the rest and while it felt fulfilling, it didn't last. I left the stadium rather let down but after having had a taste of the elixir, I was motivated to find more. 
A flyer caught my eye in the local coffee shop, where I'd stopped in to see if they had any almond poppyseed muffins with which to sate my hunger. A guru promised fulfillment at a workshop that night. 
"Yeah! Just what I want!" I crowed. "I'll be there!"
At around seven o'clock I made my way over to the venue where this guru gave weekly talks. I entered a hushed workshop space, and found a cushion to sit on. Many others were present.
    But the guru wasn't there yet. After what seemed like a long wait, he entered and sat down in a chair in front of us, that chair sitting on a little stage so we could all see him. 
  "If anybody is here looking for fulfillment I can't help you" was the very first thing he said. 
"What?!" I thought. "How.....    ...can you say that! I paid good money!"
    "Fulfillment is never found outside of the self. It can only be found within" he said, after which he started to ramble on about this and that and occasionally giggle. None of what he was saying was making any sense.  
  This guy was a charlatan and playing us for fools! I was in no mood for this gobbledy gook psychological trickery. I wanted fulfillment now. I rose from my cushion and tried not to step on anybody as I hurriedly left.
  Outside, a brochure for retirement caught my eye, the wind had blown it down the street from somewhere. Upon the front cover of the brochure a man was lying in a hammock, on a beach, with a drink in his hand, calmly gazing at the setting sun. He looked very fulfilled. 
    I had some time off coming up so after a few more irritating weeks I made my way to a warm sunny beach in Mexico and got myself into a hammock and ordered a drink from the resort's bar and timed it so I would be gazing at the setting sun, just like the guy in the brochure. 
Man did I ever get bored after awhile! This was not fulfilling!
"Arrggh!"
Off I stormed, to wherever, determined to find fulfillment. Months passed by, where I tried this and that, and then finally I gave up. "Fulfillment is impossible!” I yelled, to whoever would listen or care, but since I happened to be out in a shady park somewhat away from people at the time I yelled this, the only ones who could hear me were a elderly couple with some kids at a distant playground and a young couple throwing a frisbee back and forth. The elderly couple nervously gathered their grandkids together and started walking away to give me a lot more space. 
"You rang?" came a voice from above, or somewhere close. I was startled.
"Who are you? Where are you? Why are you talking to me?"
A misty white shape formed in front of me, but stopped short of making itself clearly definable. I could make out the guise of a very old man. "I am the god of fulfillment" the apparition said. "Here to satisfy your desire"
“Finally! Ok, god of fulfillment. Lay it on me!"
"Here goes! You might not like it....."
I blew off his cautionary words and stood there, with eyes closed, waiting for something grand to happen. The eyes closed thing seemed to be the appropriate stance to take in this situation. 
Nothing. I peeked out of one eye. Things still looked the same.
"There. I'm finished. Enjoy!" he said. "Time to get going! I've got to aide a certain Mrs. Appolinia Wharley next, over in East Suffolk Township."
"Hey! Wait a minute! You haven't done 'it' yet" I blurted.
"Yes I have. I've granted you fulfillment"
"I don't feel anything"
"Oh, you won't. That's why I can't charge for my services. Nobody I've helped ever wants to pay"
I sighed. Another joke. 
"No, it's no joke" he said, apprending my dismay. "You got the real deal. Gen-u-ine fulfillment. Even if it lasted for only a nanosecond"
"Get outta here!"
"Allright, I am messing with you. I do so because you seem to me a weary fellow, possibly receptive to knowledge, so if I'm right about that, and I usually am, let's get straight to the point. I can't give you something that you already have. You only need to become aware of that 'something'. Fulfillment can only be found when you are at peace with What Is. Otherwise you are at war with What Is. It's black and white like that. Either/Or. Come to peace with What Is and everything settles. Fight with What Is, and the battle continues"
"Oh-kay" I groaned. 
"You're not getting it" he sadly shook his head. "But you will- eventually! Everybody does. Bye, gotta go, the number of calls I'm getting today! Sheesh! Must be the holidays again....!"
"Poof!" he vanished. 
So I gave what he said a try. I'd up to that point tried everything else, so why not? I looked around the shady park and tried, really tried, to be ok with things as they were for just fifteen seconds. I noticed that when I did so I released a breath of tension, tension that I didn't even realize I'd been holding. It was a start. I felt better. 
"Maybe" I thought, "if I can string together a whole buncha of moments like this, I can stay in a state of peace with What Is. Nobody else can do this for me, I have to do it on my own. I don't know if being okay with What Is qualifies as 'fulfillment', but I'll deal with that sticky concept later, if I feel like it".

"'Cuz right now it feels good just feeling good!".

Race To The Top

The chairman of Nissan didn't feel like he was getting paid enough so, with the help of some insider within the company, he appropriated company funds to make up the difference. It wasn't enough that he had four houses, traveled the world on a corporate jet, and dined with heads of state. Scandalous, this was, to the Japanese men who had hired this guy so they fired him. Oh the pain. I guess he'll have to learn how to live on less that his multiple millions of dollars a year salary. 
A buncha expats from Venezuela came to the U.S. awhile back loaded with loot from that country and were livin' large, that is, until the indictments started comin' down. One guy had sixty horses.

The view above my dining room table. Rad, huh?

Jay Lee- Unsplash.com

Now and again, sprinkled throughout the news, are stories like this. But you don't have to plunder a company or a country every day to make up for the difference in newsworthiness between stuff like this and the boring old stories about the mundane lives of ordinary people. 
Take just one regular Joe or Jane and give them a thousand bucks and that is like an OMG moment, according to the news purveyors. "Waitress gets a $1,000 tip from a guy that just ordered coffee!" runs the headline. "Homeless guy gets a free car (that he can now live in)!" "Radio contest winner receives free plane ride to Disneyland, gets to meet members of her fav pro baseball team". Feelgood news. Stuff that makes the little people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
But for the people that have a lot, they need a lot more than that to achieve satisfaction. They raise the bar on what constitutes 'personal contentment'. Over the years I've read many stories about them and this thing called 'greed' continues to irresistably compel. So what is greed, then? It's definitely relative to one's viewpoint. I'm sure the former chairman of Nissan didn't think his actions were a big deal because he compared his salary to the salaries that American CEO's rake in, and sports heros, and figured "Hey! I'm turnin' around a huge company here, not just dribbling a basketball! I deserve more!" and you can't argue with that, can you? I mean, in the world of fat cat crony capitalism, you're losing street cred if you don't bend the pay rules and push the envelope further to keep up with the Dow Jones’. After all, CEO's universally think "I'm leading this thing and competing in the global economy! I should get a helluva lot more than the guy who is just showing up to pull another shift and has, in comparison, light years' less responsibility!" 
Or if you're the one leading the sports team, shouldn't you get more than a defensive lineman, a relief pitcher, or a second stringer that comes in off the bench when ace guard Yours Truly gets into foul trouble?
But what if you're running solo, and people around the whole country are watching as you study how to make your approach shot on the tricky par 5 14th where you got water on the left, a steep dropoff behind the green, bunkers in front, and out of bounds on the far right?
    Can't fault that guy for sidlin' up to the pay window and takin' home a million dollar check for four days of work, can you? After all, a million were entertained. A buck a head!
"But don't worry, average people" say the guys and gals on SportsCenter, on Wall Street, in The Media, and others. "After we dose you with enough shock therapy, you'll get used to it. You'll adapt". 
And amazingly, we have! We average folk have learned to find happiness in lesser arenas. And it is through that lens that we now look upon the Race To The Top with a great deal of curiosity. "What do they hope to gain there?" we wonder. "How much better can it be? I, we, could use a little more, 'tis true, but that much more?"
But maybe it's us commoners that need our mindset's changed, from the ultra wealthy's standpoint. Like when you're on a cruise ship, and that first couple of days you kind of feel guilty that your bed is made for you and the food is right there hot and ready and the dishes get magically whisked away. But, after only three days onboard, you experience a turnaround and start going "Yeah! This is great! and then by the end of the cruise you’re so pampered and lazy you find you're ridiculously ill-prepared to reenter reality, the work-a-day land populated by Do It Yourselfers (‘cuz nobody else will help). Next comes a week or so of post-cruise depression because you are suffering the effects of consuming a mere morsel of the good life. Imagine what being exposed to millions (or billions) would be like! 
So you can't fault the ones who have assumed the perils of huge accumulation and stumbled. Cruise ship commoners know how quickly the conditioning takes and how little resistance they are able to throw in the face of lavishness. Morals and ethics just have to fly out the window when piles of money come your way- or do they?
I guess that's something that can only be individually experienced. I have no direct experience with that (in this lifetime) so I don't know whether or not to thank God for my present condition but......
.....other people have volunteered. They are the guinea pigs, the wayshowers for us on how to handle hefty compensation, whether that compensation has been gained honorably or via some back alley method. Somebody has to embark upon the journey that no present day, present culture man or woman has gone on before, and report back to us.
Perhaps through their pioneering efforts they will be able then to satisfactorily answer the burning question we all have:
"Is it really so much better there?”

Droplets

It is not for most people to think that they are anything greater than just a member of their family, an employee at their job, a part of their community, a citizen of their country, along with the the minor influence they bring to that conglomorate, and then reaching further out, the even smaller overall impact they make upon the world. 
      People are conditioned to think that what they do in the scheme of things doesn't matter so much unless they're at the top pulling the biggest strings, steering and directing the course of major events. 
      But are not all rivers made up of droplets? This might be an extreme concept to consider, one that even seems laughable, for what possible influence can a droplet have? Not much, compared to a river. 
       But look to the movement of society and how relatively minor happenings within that movement are what most people experience on a daily basis. The majority of people aren't in the throes of huge undertakings, they are in the midst of everyday occurrences and within those occurrences are the happenings that shape their days and their perceptions. This 'colorizing' happens all the time and is so ubiquitous as to be almost unnoticed. People are continuously being affected, molded, and changed by life itself. 
      One time encounters or events can make a profound difference in people's lives. Searching my memory banks here, I can say that for sure I hold memories of several seminal events. The same must be true for you. 

The river is rife with new additions

Inge Maria- Unsplash.com

Leaders try to affect the course of the river. They think that it is they who are making a difference but it is individual choices that ultimately makes up the path the river follows- are you following this?
       For if you are, you can see that it isn't the 'cult of personality' that rules the day so much, it is the inner state of each person. Each person examines the outer and makes decisons based on what they hold within. Of all the influences people take into consideration, the vast majority are those that might affect them personally. 

Were we to examine the building blocks that make up just one human's perception of the world we would be amazed at the amount of influences that individual has experienced. Who can say which of those have had the most impact? That is up to the individual to decide, and most quietly do. They come to their own conclusions.

So yes, though people are driven by highly individual needs and desires they are also turned this way or that through exposure to exterior influences, the things that politicians and advertisers and romantic partners and managers concern themselves with. Psycholological aspects aside, there is also the subject of spiritual belief and understanding, which definitely plays a role in each individual's decison making. Not money, sex, or survival driven, these decisions rest on individually held concepts of right and wrong. It's easy to see why politicians couple with religious leaders to cover all the bases of belief.

In extreme times, people are called to examine their beliefs and assumptions and the way they do that is by acting on what they personally know, not just what they're being told. So you can see how the interaction with just one person, or being part of one event, which could be a current one or an event that happened years ago, can change the path an individual currently chooses to take, which can alter the flow of the immense river of life!

Knowing this, can it still be said that droplets don’t have any power?

Race To The Bottom

        What happened? What is it with some people? What is their attraction for the darker sides of their natures to be experienced? Hasn't the world had enough of that?
What is this compulsion to create drama and spectacle? To pit the bad against the good? Are we stuck with this behavior being played out over and over?
Can they not stand to watch the Hallmark Channel and must instead turn their eyes towards the ultimate fighting pit? Must they always push the edges always in that way, and if what they have uncovered is abhorrent, is there within them the desire still to ramp even that up?

If there's no drama, it seems they become restless and must create some. All the tools for peaceful, harmonious, and abundant coexistence are at the human race’s disposal and yet dysfunction rules the day, at the highest levels, which then trickles down and infects the vulnerable in the populace. When even some of our role models model discord, as if that sort of thing is inevitable, as if there must exist the ‘necessities’ of strife, inequality, and injustice, and then they have the gall to chuckle at it, smug to be on the other side of that equation, is that not then the realm of madmen and fools? I say this kind of thinking is the result of an astounding and appalling failure to accept the responsibility to lead.
    For where can dysfunction and disharmony go but back upon itself to degrade the situation further? If fault can be found outside, in all cases, but not within, what hope is there for correction? Does nature operate in this way, do flowers and trees start out stunted and then flower spectacularly or produce branches and leaves suddenly devoid of imperfection?
  No. So what then can come of imperfect thought but more of the same? There is no 'method in the madness' in a lot of the present day socio-political sphere. 
Reason and compromise have given way to deceit and subterfuge and outright denial of reality. 

I ain’t gamblin’ on unsound versions of reality

Jonathan Petersson- Unsplash.com

     I saw all this coming years ago. I saw the path that certain groupings were walking and knew that it could only lead to this. Look to the recent past, the last dozen decades or so. Weren't there indications of this malaise heading our way? But only recently has it exploded into what is occurring now, an Orwellian nightmare that is desperately trying to establish itself as the 'new normal' if only the populace at large would buy it and if they do, all hope for the human race is lost because the foundation upon which reality is based- truth- will no longer exist. 
   Truth, fact, reality. Like that. This is how we build our foundation. We search for what is true, establish that as fact, build our reality upon it, and repeat. Step by step. 
     Truth has always been under attack by those seeking to subvert, but never so much as it is today. The present situation is like a weather system. The winds of untruth are rising in response to what is coming, a strong, cold, hard dose of truth that will sweep unreality out to sea. It could be the perfect storm, the way it's shaping up. All the forecast models are indicating this. 
    But, don’t worry, truth will prevail, as it always does, because truth is stronger than untruth. Truth is what the universe is based on and though mankind may choose to deny it for awhile and exist in an unreality bubble, that is no match for the greater power of The Universe. 
     So go ahead, fabricators. Create your fantasy worlds, altered histories, and alternative cosmologies all you want. Those will be whisked away by the clearing winds, to be scattered back into the nonsensical regions from whence they came.

Family Gathering Time

Thanksgiving is the time when extended family members get together, usually after a long time apart. It marks the start of the holiday season. Thanksgiving is when relatives ('The Rels') gather over at the designated family gathering house, which in my case, was always Gramma's-on-the-farm.
It was like the damn Waltons over there. I mean, there were aunts and uncles and kids- lots and lots of kids. So many, and so many new ones, that you had to struggle sometimes to remember names. I thought everybody had experienced this growing up but only years later did I realize that not everybody had experienced burgeoning swarms of relatives on Thanksgiving Day. Some people never knew what it was like so I'm here to tell you that it was just alright. 
It wasn't like we were all warm with each other, like me and my numerous cousins were super friendly with each other. We were cordial, let's say. Our aunts wanted us to get along like we were long lost kin but Nah! We didn't. There were some I bonded with, some I just tolerated, and some that were in between those two poles. Some of this was due to the fact that we only saw each other once or twice a year. The local cousins I might see numerous times during the year, the more distant ones maybe once or twice. 
This was in Wisconsin so it was at that time of year pretty damn cold outside, the first snow had fallen a week or so before and on Thanksgiving week the snow usually started sticking, and would, until spring. Wouldn't be melting off anymore. Deer hunting season was also in full swing, and always coupled with Thanksgiving was the sight of blaze orange-clad hunters and deer carcasses gracing the beds of pickup trucks or deer carcasses strung up between trees, ready to be 'dressed', as they said it. 
Gunshots were occasionally heard coming from the woods around town where I lived, and around Gramma’s farmhouse, sometimes in rapid succession, and this was necessary because if the deer weren't reduced in population many might starve during the long winter or, come spring, they would become road hazards and invade the farmer's fields. Just the way it was up there. 
So relatives that had been hunting and relatives coming from town or places farther away would arrive at Gramma's doorstep. Coming in from the frosty cold they would be met by two things- a lot of heat from the many things cooking on the stove, and the gang inside the house, which seemed to grow by the hour. 

Cousins by the bushel! This here’s Aunt Nan’s boy!

Luke Southern- Unsplash.com

Now Gramma's (Gramps was there too, but he had dementia to where he just sat in his chair) house wasn't that big but we all fit in there, the women all fussing around in the kitchen trying to help Gramma, the younger kids running around in their wild ways, occasionally being scolded by their respective mothers if they got out of hand, me and my cousins awkwardly trying to get along with each other, and the older men, uncles and husbands of aunt so-and-so, sitting at card tables playing poker while either The Lawrence Welk Show (Gramps’ favorite), NBC, CBS, or ABC holiday specials, or better yet, football was playing on the black and white TV in the living room. 
By nightfall, which came pretty early at that time of year, dinnertime would be announced, and it was everybody grabbing plates and making their way around an extended kitchen table covered with good eats. There was a huge turkey, of course, a big sliced ham, mashed potatoes, boats of gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, home baked bread and butter, lots of other stuff, and at least three different pies to choose from. More than enough for everybody- and please help yourself to seconds. 
There wasn't enough room at the table so everybody just found a place to sit and eat and we did, happily so, 'cuz nothing was better than Gramma's food I swear to God there was something special about it. Might not have been the healthiest in today's estimation but our ingestion of large amounts of butter, bacon fat, Crisco shortening, sugar, and salt didn't seem to do us any harm. All those older people 'round the table at the time lived a great number of years afterward. 
After dinner the kitchen table was cleared and the women sat around it and played Canasta and Pinochle for hours. Many of the kids and uncles joined in or watched, or joined in the easygoing conversation that passed around the table. It was good stuff. 
Then the first yawns started getting shared and it was time for the families to gather up kids and get their jackets, hats, and gloves from the pile off the spare sofa in the corner nook where the adolescents hung out and make their way to the kitchen door to get their boots on. Goodbyes were said and off they'd go, the crowded house thinning out in this way until the last family was left. 
Oh, the dishes had been cleaned up some and most of the food had been put away but Gramma would hear none of any attempts to clean up everything, she'd get to that later. And then when the last family left it was just her and Gramps alone and Thanksgiving was over and down the long snow covered and icy gravel country road family members would drive back to the paved county road, which led to their places some twenty miles or more away. 

Whenever I think about Thanskgiving I think about those days, which didn't last very long. We kids grew up fast and eventually Gramma and Gramps passed, the old farmhouse got sold off ('cuz none of their kids wanted to do hard farming work), and it never was the same again. Thanksgiving was a smaller affair after that and it still is. It's hard to get people together in that way year after year anymore, people live so far apart now, or at least my family does. 
But that's okay. I had my Norman Rockwell Thanksgivings growing up and while they were bustling and bonding times, so is every other Thanksgiving I've experienced special. The spirit of Thanksgiving is what makes it so. Doesn't matter if you're with a crowd, if there's only the two of you, or if you're even just one. Just know that the very act of getting together and putting aside differences for awhile warms up people's hearts and gets transferred to the populace at large. Everybody benefits.

I Am Relevant

I think I am. Or I was- yesterday….
Yesterday I was front page news. All the websites were running pictures of me, or at least the relevant websites were. Upon those sites my words carried weight. My image was telling- my gestures, my facial expression, the clothes I had purchased or somehow fabricated. The decisions that I had made, or was mulling over making, created buzz. 
Reporters clamored to hear my words. I was badgered in the hallways, sidled up to, pestered for clues about what I was thinking and where I might go with that thinking. I set policy. I was a decider, a kingmaker, a player.
Others looked up to me. I was a role model, something to aspire to, a leader. I had the right stuff. 
The press couldn't get enough of me and I often had to hide from them. I had bodyguards, read prepared statements, had aides, assistants, underlings, spokespersons, lieutenants, and (it was widely speculated) henchmen. The clergy was (sometimes) on my side. I had clout. 
But I also had my detractors, my enemies. Oh, did they rail against me to anybody who would listen, or read the stories they had written about me! I was endlessly analyzed, over-the-top scrutinized, and even though my history was thoroughly combed over they still couldn't understand what made me tick. I kept 'em guessing and stayed one step ahead. 
I was clever. Smart. Smarter than them, for I was above and they were below. Who was the camera pointing at? Me!
I was relevant. 

Picture books about my life and the impact I had

Designecologist- Unsplash.com

But then one day the camera pointed away. Somebody else had showed up with more interesting things to say or do and try as I might, I couldn’t capture the media's attention anymore. No matter what I did they weren't interested. Power was draining from my brand, my image, my camp, and accumulating in theirs.  
Oh, members of the media would come around from time to time, do follow-up stories on me, see what I was up to, sniff around to see if I had anything that might vault me back into the limelight for if I did their star would rise too but I had nothing of much interest to offer them. 
I had become irrelevant. Even though I was still respected, and would long be, I was not captivating anymore. My star had faded, and it had happened so suddenly! One day I was king of the world, at the head of the conference table, calling the shots, had the ball in my hand, was under the spotlight on stage playing my role, and the next I was obscure. Just another Joe. 
But it was fun while it lasted. I tell everybody in the club here about my former life, my many and varied friends, my family at home, and anybody else I can corral, or I just sit alone and reminisce about my days on top. 
  Lookit there, on the TV! The latest hot new personalities. I kinda feel sorry for them, they're going to get milked for every ounce of interest that they can provide then the machine will discard them. I oughta open a consulting business to help them capitalize on their fame but it's hard to get through, there's such a mob of helpers and enablers around the relevant ones all the time. Never know though, I might get lucky. I'll give so-and-so a call, lay my best pitch on 'im. Got to strike while the iron's hot 'cuz who or what's relevant today probably won't be a year from now. From obscurity to the limelight and back again is the cycle.

Whew! They were right about fame being fleeting!

Plentium

  "Welcome to the land of Plentium" my guide said. "Come on in"
I entered the vast hall trepidatiously. There were so many treasures lying around, free for the taking. 
"What an amazing place!" I remarked, awestruck. "I must be dreaming!"
"Rest assured, you are not dreaming" my guide said. "This is the real deal. You've earned it"
  "I have? How?"

I don’t do this every day so don’t get any ideas

Tom Parsons- Unsplash.com

"All those nights you worked late because your co-workers called in 'sick', all those times that the managers claimed that the company was struggling when it was making bank, all the times that you asked if it was the correct price and the salesman in the store or whatever said that it was, and you paid it, and all of other times you played by the rules while others cheated. It all adds up. This is your karma. It is what you, by doing your good works, have silently accrued. Now it is yours to enjoy"
"Uh..... uh.... I don't know how to enjoy. I've always gotten by with less. It's what I'm used to. This seems to be way too much"
"It's not"
"How can you say that? There's more here than I've ever dreamed!"
"Were not your dreams big like this, once?"
"They were. But then....."
"Something happened, right? You're not alone. You were told- conditioned- by various factions and forces that your lot in life was a small one. It never in actuality was. This largesse has always been your birthright"
"I thought so. I knew it!"
"Don't be gettin' uppity now! This isn't about winners and losers. It's about The All. The All wants you to have this. It has always wanted you to have this. But- you live in a free will world and there are those who didn't want you to know that. Your gain is their loss, in their perception. This is why this was kept from you. They wanted all of The All for themselves"
"And they did a pretty damn good job of that!" I snidely (and surprisingly) replied. I was getting a little bit pissed at being delayed from grabbing the goods that were so agonizingly near. 
"Not nice people are a pain throughout the universe. But don't worry. They'll get theirs" the guides calmly said, which was not a good enough answer for a long sufferer like me.

"By means of fiery vengeance and horrible shrieking pain?" I sputtered, urgently hoping for an affirmative reply.

"By means of unending overtime and having to carry the load shorthanded?" I prayed this too would be so.

"And by means of heckling and spurious laughter coming from regions removed?" I fervently wished, my brow aching as if in extreme throes of visualizing.

My guides sadly shook their heads in response to my vitriol, but having been once human, or assigned through higher attainment to coach humans, they understood. 
"No, it won't be that way. An eye for an eye is the olde interpretation of the law. It was meant for Moses' time. Today we say 'appropriate'. The appropriate means of salvation, brought about by the implementation of corrective measures, will be lovingly yet sternly applied. You call this 'tough love'. We call it 'infinite mercy'. Your vengeance timetable is a crude and inappropriate application of ‘justice’, one that is also way too short for The Universe. Try thinking much longer term. We don't want trauma patients, we want coherent members of the growing fold of the redeemed. Think about that the next time you get the urge to lash out.
Now go and help yourself to the booty. Your time in the trenches is over. Others have volunteered to be the wayshowers so that you can take a well deserved rest- of the rest your lifetime, if you wish it. A good looong break"
"Yea!"
"Just understand that with fiscal freedom comes responsibility. Use this bequest wisely. Treat others with respect, extend a helping hand if so inspired, tread lightly through the world in all ways. Because if'n you don't......"
A piteous scream was heard in the background, wailing came from another direction, and an overtime zombie staggered by, quite near. 
     "....you will again find yourself in the company of the wicked".
"That''s ok. Got it. I’m cool. Ain't goin' there. You got my word on that"
”Good. See you in fifty years?"
"I'll be dead by then!"
"You'll be reborn by then"
"Oh".

Death

All of my life I have been obsessed with death. Isn't that weird? But it's not a morbid obsession with death, it's a sort of measuring where I stand as the sand from the hourglass slowly runs out. 
You see, I have done this before, this thing called life, so I treasure it, oh do I ever. I know how tenuous it is, how fleeting, how tragic and sad and gruesome the end of it might be. Death is that part of life that we never want to look at and when we do, it usually ain't pretty. 
So we hide death from view as much as we possibly can, in order for life to shine that much brighter. We try and bury death under distractions and busyness and purpose and goals and future and we can be quite successful with that but death always has the final say. 
Were death to be not so, we would have perpetual life and if that were so, what a dysfunctional one that would be, looking around and seeing how we approach life. We’re not exactly aces at that, are we?

Angels are cool

Sandy Millar- Unsplash.com

 
One of the absolutely amazing things about death- Death! Finis! The End! - is that although everybody knows it's coming, they treat it as if it's nothing to be overly concerned about! You’d think- any animal would think- that if I only have X number of years and that's it I'm gonna be one wild crazy bad ass mo'fo and get what I can while I can get it. Anarchy would rule the day because with no future beyond life, and no God to answer to, there would be zero consequence. 
But the very absence of anarchy is telling. It indicates that there is consequence, which is ruled by conscience. No matter what people might say outwardly, they inwardly- even the atheists- believe in God, or something that just might be best left un-pissed off when they transition. 

You can hold up a yardstick to any accomplishment in the earthly realm and death only laughs at it. You can rise to the highest position, lord over minions, store gold and art in Swiss vaults deep under the mountains there, and none of that matters at the end. 
"Ain't never seen no U-Haul behind no hearse!" I heard some African American lady say once and I thought "Ain't that right!"
'Cuz it is. Death is. So spin out on whatever tangent you want, you ain't gonna spin out on death. Death ain't no fake news.
You can though, as so many do, treat death as something to never, ever think about and be quite sucessful in that approach. So successful that in the end you haven't paid it hardly any mind at all. You almost cheated death in that way. Wow. Good for you. For these people it's like death comes sneakin' around the corner and right at the last second goes "Hello" and it's over. 
    Is that wrong? Is that right? I don't have an answer for that. All I know is that for me, death is a curiosity, a thread, that once pulled upon, drawn closer, and fully examined, has shown me more about life and what it means than I ever could have imagined. My obsession with death has brought to me books about the afterlife, research on NDE's (Near Death Experiences), and so much more. I don't know exactly what happens after we die but I feel a lot better about it now so when somebody mentions death, or I see that somebody famous has died in the news, I think that they've chosen to transition so that they can go to some heavenly place and reboot their soul, change things around some, so that when they can come back, in all likelihood, to this earthly realm they can try life out again under a different set of conditions and build upon what they already know. It's a beautiful system. 

I've heard it said in the future that we'll have this life thing figured out well enough and we'll feel like sticking around longer. We won't need to transiton and be reborn so often. We won't need to pack in a lot of intense experiences. 
Sounds good to me. I'm ready for that. Sign me up! 

'Cuz an only four score and ten years or so lifespan hasn't even gotten me out of adolescence. I mean, really. 

Gratitude

Seems there is a genr’l lack of this these days, there is a massive sense of entitlement going around. I see it in young and old people but hey I was young once, unconscious once, and had attitude aplenty. 
     But if you've ever had to work for a living boy do you change that tune. 
Not everybody is gonna know what I'm talking about here, there are a few who have never worked in their lives and never will. To those, I say you cannot possibly understand (which is the same thing that parents tell people that don't have kids, interestingly enough). Because, in a way, when you have to work, it's kind of like dealing with kids all the time. The problem child might be your boss, or it might be your coworkers- a lot of working people can relate to that one- but most likely it's the customers you interact with. 
  Things need to get done, employees do it, and customers are the recipients of those efforts. Simple, right?
Should be. But when you throw attitude into the mix, the customer entitlement quality that workers find so annoying, well, that just doesn't make for a good exchange. Yes, we know you paid good money for this, your time is valuable, you're in a hurry, your elderly parent is waiting in the hallway, or the 1,001 other reasons you have but- say it nice. 
That's all you gotta do. 'Cuz I can guarantee you if you don't, that is going to slow things down. Hit the worker bee with not nice and his or her heels are going to dig in. Whatever process, transaction, or function that bee has to fulfill is now going to be done less than joyfully because they have to deal with you. 
Now while it’s true that there are some bad apple worker bees out there, it’s more likely than not that the one you’re dealing with is not naturally surly, woke up in a bad mood that morning, or is in the 1,001 other ways customers imagine, to be ‘shirking their duties', no. 

Dig- If you have to face hundreds of people a day, say you're a checker in a supermarket, a gate agent at the airport, or a pool attendant at a resort, the people with attitude and not gratitude wear on you until you get to the point where you're numb, uncommunicative, and just going through the motions. You’re not really there mentally though physically you have to be- which is the very definition of a zombie.
  This traumatized person is on the road to burnout and probably desperately looking for another job due to all the attitude that has come his or her way. Managers won't step in to curb most disrespectful customer behavior because they’re usually not around and even if they are the caveat 'the customer is always right' (they bring in money) applies, so weathering attitude is the (aptly named) 'front line' employee's burden to bear. This is soooo unnecessary, because all it takes is a little understanding on the customer's part on how to communicate their need(s) in the right way. Say it nice. Have a little consideration. Pour a little sugar on it.

People that work with the public understand how to do this, watch the pros and learn from them next time you're out in the field. They might be getting barraged by some unconscious lout's attitude but they'll never lash out in response. They know how to deal with the children of the world because over time they have learned that the problem isn't that they are being unreasonable. Truly, these ones have developed the patience of saints. Oh, they could tell you stories.....

‘Hey! Uniform! Where’s the bathroom?”

“#$!%#!”

Anna Dziubinska- Unsplash.com

We live in a very fast paced, internet-fueled, Do (a lot of) It Yourself world. It closely resembles a sort of instant gratification convenience store. People don't want to wait for anything. They want to grab and go, and pack in a crazy amount of experiences, but in order for them to do that there has to be other people manning the stores, restaurants, resorts, airports, and doing necessary maintenance and upkeep. The ones on the go should get up in the morning and thank God that these people are smoothing the way for them. While not exactly so grateful that they're stopping to wash these people's feet (the fantasy every worker bee has) the Grab and Go crowd should be awestruck by how blessed they are to be given the ability to move seamlessly through the world, all the necessary support functions being taken care of for them so that they can have their precious experiences. 
So, Me Firsters, the next time you interact with a person that's making it happen for you, try and muster up the ability to be genuinely grateful because that person isn't a robot, or your butler, or ol' Go an’ Gettit. That person is only playing a role for you and someday, if there is any justice at all in this world, it'll be their time to Grab and Go.

And when that time comes, believe me, those who have truly Been There will shower gratitude upon every worker bee that crosses their path.

Bell Bottom Blues

Of all the fashion trends I have ever seen, bell bottom pants were one of the coolest. They were absolute must-haves in the 1960's and '70's. Every teen and young adult wore them. To not have bell bottoms on was to be one of them- The Establishment- which was way uncool, man. 
Along with your bell bottoms you had to have long hair if you were a guy, you just had to. If you didn't, you were part of them. Talkin' 'bout The Establishment, man! 
Women wore hip hugger bells and those were hot, man, were they ever. Hippie chicks were groovy. 
And then......  .....just like that, it all ended. Groovy went out of style. Like overnight, man. 

But that's cool, that's alright, we figured at the time. Fashion never slept and those inventive clothing designers undoubtedly had introduced some (maybe even cooler!) trendy new stuff that had wowed 'em on the runways in the major fashion centers and was trickling down through the populace. This was the way of it. We all knew that. 
Bell bottoms being fashionable had run their course- for now. 

What happened?! We went from funk to Dockers.

Andy Kirby- Unsplash.com

There used to be an ad for Jim Beam whiskey, I think it was, that showed how everything that was in style at one time went out of style then came back into style years later. Trends came and went in a circle. Clothing was: In fashion, Dated, Uncool, Wouldn't be caught dead wearing it, Totally forgotten, Resurrected, Gotta have it at any price 'cuz it's the hot 'new' style. 
The ad was very perceptive and true to life for I saw this cycle play out with most apparel (and hairstyles). At one point early 1960's bowling shirts and shoes became fashionable again. Crew cuts. Capri pants. Bermuda shorts. Thick plastic framed glasses, or thick plastic frame glasses rimmed with wire on the bottom of the lenses, circa 1955, like Mr. Whipple wore (the "Don't squeeze the Charmin!" guy). Gaudy plastic sunglasses (Ferris Bueller's Day Off).
Beards came back. Big, bushy mountain man beards. Ponytails. Platform shoes. Elegant 1940's dresses. Satin sleepwear. Fedoras. Denim shirts. Paisley shirts. The list goes on. But never have bell bottom pants returned. 
Oh, women still wear them from time to time, they're around for that gender. Not as ubiquitous as they used to be, and not always in denim fabric, but they still make bell bottom pants for women. But for men? 
Ha ha ha ha ha! No man would be caught dead wearing bell bottom pants, far as I can see, even if they made 'em for men anymore, which they don’t. Straight leg is all that's on sale, which is the lamest look. 
If you wear Western jeans, you might be able to get away with something called 'boot cut', but that ain't bell bottom. 'Boot cut' is a slight flare, jest enough to get yer boot covered an' no more, 'cuz if'n it were more, you'd be gay or something. 
  "Ain't that right, Jeb?"
"Yessir Clem, that's fer shore right. I'll agree with you there". 

Bell bottoms existed way before Brokeback Mountain and I can guar-an-tee you, gay did not enter into the picture. At all. 
Bell bottom pants were the funkiest, coolest things men ever got away with wearing but some fashionista somewhere decided that men would be better off wearing straight leg jeans, which supposedly came from the punk rock scene, you know, the post-industrial, Euro-trash, gaunt and haggard junkie/squatter look.
Ug-ly! 
Back in the day, only geeks and nerds wore straight leg pants. Hep jive cat laid back dude hippie brothers wore bell bottoms. Shaft wore bell bottoms, and Shaft was the most Right On! brother ever to set hisself behind the wheel of a Lincoln Mark V, which was a boat of a car, so righteously big that you almost needed the Coast Guard's help to park it. 
The things young people don't know these days! You don't know of the rich history behind some articles of clothing and the options that could be available to you! I am so continuously amazed by this. People nowadays will cover their entire bodies with tats, shave their heads bald, wear piercings everywhere, choose nearly every conceivable piece of clothing ever known to humankind to create an 'outfit' with and not only that, they will wear it with pride. They will even walk around in florescent orange, green, and pink shoes and think nothing of it but men will not wear bell bottom pants!

  Why not?!

They seem to have no problem wearing everything else!

The Interview

A local station, Wha's Sup Radio, called and asked if I wanted to be interviewed and I said "No, I can't. My travel schedule is too full".
(Yeah, right)
Of course I agreed. Any exposure right now is a good thing. So I made my way down to the station but came bringing my own Joe with me for the morning interview 'cuz I ain't the trustin' kind when it comes to Joe.
The woman doing the interview was named Tina. I like that name. Haven't heard it for awhile. You know, baby names change with the generations and Tina, an old one, is making a comeback. Anyway, the interview:

Tina: "How did you pick the name for your website- 'NowChangeable.com'?"
Me:  "I just came up with it, and liked the way it sounded right away. It represents a whole slew of things"
Tina:  "Does that 'just coming up with it' approach apply to everything you write?"
Me:  "Pretty much. I pull from everywhere and everywhen. What ends up on the page is an amalgam, a mixture, a soup"

That’s not me. I don’t ever wear camo pants.

neonbrand- Unsplash.com

Tina: "What caused you to want to do a blog?"
Me: "It was time. That's all I can tell you"
Tina: "Mmm. Mysterious. Tell me, what do your readers think of the stuff you write about?"
Me: "It's up to them. My job is to just put the words out with the overall intent that whatever I post is helpful"
Tina: "Is it?"
Me: "That's not for me to decide or know. I'd rather not know"
Tina: "Why?"
Me:  "Because then I might become famous or something. Worse thing that could happen! Recognition is okay, but fame.... ...ooh. Don't want that"
Tina: (looking at my readership stats) "Looks like you could use a little fame"
Me: "They'll find out about me organically. The web might be a big place but type in the right words...."
Tina: "I see your point. You're a low key guy"
Me: "Not at all! I like to think big. Very big. Fame though, in my view, is a burden. There have been many cases of You Tube stars burning out lately. Their audiences demanded new stuff from them regularly and these You Tubers feared that their ratings would drop and their viewership would disappear if they didn't produce. Even though they tried desperately to keep up, they became exhausted physically and mentally from being literally besieged to put out content. They're drained, anxiety ridden, stressed-out shells of their former bright happy selves, who like me, initially only wanted to help people"
Tina: "They needed a break!"
Me: "Hell yes they did. But they were afraid to take one. Not putting out content was like death to them"
Tina: "I notice in your blog that you put out something nearly every day. Are you driven by that same fear? That if you don't produce you'll become irrelevant, a has-been, an afterthought?"
Me: "Oh yeah. Defintitely. But it's an itsy bitsy fear. My greatest fear is that the well of meaningful, inspirational stuff will dry up and I'll end up writing about how I saw Bic pens are made on How It's Made or other such drivel but so far, thank God, that hasn't happened very often"
Tina: "Do you think this 'well of inspiration', as you call it, will ever fail to provide?"
Me: "I don't think I'll ever run out of things to write about. And I'll tell you why... (a pause here, followed by a scratching of the head and staring blankly into space, as if searching for an answer, which seems to produce a glimmer of an idea) ...I don’t know why! Wait- wrong answer. Just kidding. I do know why. The well will never fail to provide because my intention is to help people and I'm interested in fulfilling that intention. My intent will bring subjects to me to write about, because Lord knows, this world needs help"
Tina: "Isn't that a little presumptious? That the world needs help from you, specifically?"
Me: "Of course it's presumptious. But- I'm doing it. I'm getting up in the morning, or late at night or whatever, and putting words on the page. There are those who would like to help, but don't. I actually walk my talk"
Tina: "Yes, you do. But for how long? Do you see yourself doing this say, five years from now?"
Me: "I can't say I've actually made any long term plans like that but I will say this: If I feel into the future, I sense that NowChangeable.com is going to be around for a long, long time"
Tina: "As a blog, or will it morph into something else?"
Me: "I envision a platform of sorts. Maybe with some contributors. Products. Endorsements. Classes. Who knows? Im building a brand here. There's no telling where I can go with this but the key thing is I keep the name. People like stability when it comes to spiritual content and philosophical dissertations. I act as the rock, the foundation, for all that is to come. Everything that forms later can be built upon this solid base"
Tina: "I see. You talk about God a lot. Do you have a direct line or something like that to him?"
Me: "That sounds like I'm acting as his spokesperson or something. No, I wouldn't put it that way. I'd say I have, over a long period of time, got to know how the spiritual realm works but- there's a whole lot of learning left. My concept of God has changed and continues to do so. At this point I wouldn't say that God is in another area like the 'throne room', or that he exists in a different dimension or level, or that he can even be called a separate, singular entity- he's referenced that way for convenience's sake. Let's just say that God and I exist in the same space. We collaborate. Or as the rappers would say, I represent ‘him’ (in a respectful way, of course)"
Tina: "I've never heard it put that way before, but I like it. I feel this interview could go on for a long time, and that we could cover many subjects in depth, but I'm running out of time. Any final words for our listeners?"
Me: "Just that NowChangeable.com is going to be around for awhile. So look it up if you're interested. See if there's anything in there for you, for your friends, or for other people you know that would be interested in such content. In the future I'd like to do some collaboration with other like-minded bloggers or websites, sort of an ongoing cross fertilization thing, while retaining the distinct flavor of my personal site. I think that different viewpoints on the same subject can be refreshing and inspiring. That's all I have to say- for now."
Tina: "Well, thank you for your time. And good luck in the future."
Me: "You're very welcome. Invite me back to do a follow-up in a few years. That should prove interesting".

Tina (after the interview). I hope his site does well. I, as they say in spiritual circles, 'liked his energy'. Coming up next week, we'll take a look at another site, Big Changes Afoot, which is an offshoot of Robert Dashford's site, 'Reboot Nation'. Hope to have you listening then and have a stellar day- 'cuz now you know Wha’s Sup!”.

Shakespeare Was Right

All the world's a stage and we are merely players upon it. We are rogues and fools, kings and paupers, the noble and the disdained, villains and villainous, exalted and sinister; we’re bumbling, egregious, appropriate, brash, unsullied, outspoken, comical, ignoble, cursed, wretched, supportive, distasteful, heinous, vibrant, wicked, pure, cruel, innocent, chaste, philosophical, ardent, ill tempered, tender, and lots, lots more. 
We don't know what we're doing, half of us or more, while the rest know very well what's going on and are pulling strings that we don't see. 
Through all of our many passion plays though, we at least learn something by the end. Maybe it's getting the joke in Act I or figuring out why Malvolio was so pissed at Sir Toby and Sir Andrew.
  And then another production starts with new players in a new setting, or it's a mix of new players and old in a familiar one. 
  Whatever we learn through these plays never seems to be enough, there are so many things to learn, about life, relationships, about what constitutes good and bad. There are questions posed like "What is wisdom?" and "What is good rulership?". The handling of these many issues of course determines whether the players conclude the play with a happy ending or whether they leave the stage in tragic circumstance. We know the happy ones will be fine. The tragic will pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and somehow carry on. 
  William wrote about all this four hundred years ago and still this is going on. A lot of it coulda stopped right there, all the dysfunctional nonsense, but maybe William Shakespeare was way ahead of his time. So far ahead that his plays weren't even understood by many in the audience, who laughed at the funny physical parts but were saddened and in some way puzzled by the tragic ones. Certainly they could relate to those- their lives were for the most part short and brutish.
But that was then. In these now times people are exposed to a passion play oh, about every time they look at their phones. The amount of material that they are absorbing has to be accelerating their consciousnesses exponentially! Unlike the audience members in William's time, they don't have to wait in line for tickets and then, once inside, pay rapt attention to catch every word that is spoken or physical gesture that may indicate meaning. If they miss a critical part of whatever play they're absorbed in they can replay it, and if they get distracted by a text or something on Instagram they can restart the show. They can get back into it, pick it up where they left off, get a grip on what is going down and why. This intense daily focus by millions has to be making a dent, right?

Dig- you can get audio of the entire Bible, or whatever your Good Book is, and listen to it on your drive to work. Won't take long to get through the whole thing, which is exhausting to actually read from end to end (I tried to once, didn't get far). You can similarly download all the classic literature ever written, search out formulae for everything imaginable on the internet, and likewise do research on everything you could possibly have an interest in. None of this was available to the people at the Globe Theatre in the 1600's. We should be much, much smarter. 
But are we? Ah- there's the rub- along with the smart stuff has come a flood of I won't say dumb stuff, because everything is educational in some way, let's just say it's distracting stuff. The wisdom of William is there on the internet, like it has been on the shelves of libraries for centuries. The question is: Is anybody reading it, and if they are, do they understand it?

Hamlet 2018

Mads Schmidt Rasmussen- Unsplash.com

Hamlet's 'nunnery' soliloquy, reimagined:

"To be or not to be (intelligent) is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of fate (distractions) or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them (educate oneself). To end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. 
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely (insults), the pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's (justice's) delay, the insolence (disrespect) of office, and the spurns that patient merit of th' unworthy takes (general abuse of good people by bad), when he himself might his quietus make with some books or a series of videos?
    Who would fardels (burdens) bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after ignorance, the undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn no traveller returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?
    Thus ignorance does make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution (the natural willingness to act) is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of dull'd thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action".

The Illusions Of Loss, Time, And Death

  Let's go back, way back, to yesterday. Wasn't that a great day? One that will never come again. Oh, the melancholy! 
Glory days, yesterdays are. They are that which was, are no more, and never can be replayed again- like reruns are. Constantly.
Imagine a reel of movie film, the film unwinding behind you into infinite space. Each frame on this constantly unwinding reel represents a day that was. Off into the ethers go these frames, which are held briefly in the memories of the living, or if you are famous, held in the minds of people long after your death. Steadily into the distance these frames travel, away from the Here and Now.
The Universe is like that. Relentless. Stubborn. Refusing, absolutely refusing to preserve or maintain that which was. What's done is done and will never be repeated in exactly the same way again. There is no rest, only perpetual movement. 
There is no pining for days gone by on The Universe's part. There is no attempting to resurrect what once might have been the epitome of beauty, fragility, or precociousness, like a sixteen year old girl, a flower, or a five year old child. You get your moment and that's it. "Sorry!" say human thinkers but "Not sorry, never sorry!" says The Universe, which is beyond emotion. It just is. 
  You might rant and rave about this 'injustice' but you have to deal with it because it's bigger than you, like the weather.
Time is clearly not on our side. 

Hola! The former Don Pedro and his sisters.

Cristian Newman- Unsplash.com

As we all march steadily towards our demise and once there leap into the unknown, disappearing from this realm, we seem to those left remaining gone but....
...we never really were here in the first place, so put away your crying towels. There was an embodiment, yes. That is gone. But that which was contained within the embodiment and found expression for awhile in the physical still remains. That essence, that energy which you knew as Joe, Billy, Samatha, or Carol hasn't gone anywhere other than where it has always been, vibrating in a dimension that is its natural home. Where else could it go? Could it dissolve into dust like the body? How? It never was the body, it only inhabited it like a suit of clothes. 
Undeniable is the fact that even before the actual grand exit have come (for most) decades of nightly sleep, where the energy that inhabited the body soared free, only to return in the morning, open the body's eyes, and mumble "I had the strangest dream last night..."
"...I dreamt I was trapped inside a body!"
    You can't deny it, this fact of life about life itself is ever present. The inability to locate the self anywhere inside the physical body is irrefutable. It hasn't been done yet, even though science has been hard at work probing and poking inside the brain searching for the seat of consciousness, which continues to elude them. 
So back to 'loss'. What loss? What is there to lose save the concept of physical permanence? The Universe is a living thing, as are 'we', those who exist seemingly 'outside' of it, and if you think about such things, which few do, ask yourself this question: "If I am not contained by a body now, what will contain me when my body is no more? What boundaries or borders will there be?”. There will be layers of vibration, perhaps, but certainly nothing physical. 
So. Care about the things you reference as 'home' for now. Your body, your family, your friends, your pets, your football team, and even this planet 'cuz you're not gonna be around them forever. However, that's the beauty of it! Krishnamurti said that (the concept of) death brings contrast to life. This contrast is absolutely necessary, for without it you wouldn't see life's fragile, aching beauty. 
But on the other hand, that little bit of poetic flavoring aside, it's not like you have a choice! So fight loss, time, and death if you want, resist them in any way that makes you feel like you’re somehow stopping the inevitable. The Universe won't pay you a bit of mind. Roll with impermanence though, and you'll be in the flow, because life is kind of like a crazy magic carpet ride of experiences for no purpose other than just to have experiences. 
Never being able to hold on to anything, we can only react to what confronts us. So why not choose acceptance? 
If you do, you will be able to see the beauty that exists all around.

Don't Be Dissuaded II

     It all can be done, and will be done, but when it finally gets done, which is not so far off in universal terms, it might seem like a it took one day short of forever in human comprehension.

  If you look out the window, wherever you are, what you are seeing didn't arise accidentally. There was purpose there. Overlapping purposes, but intertwined. The purpose of Gaia, nature, the whole, and then the overlay upon that, which is humankind. 
Humans are allowed to live here, they didn't come here to run rampant. They were given, of all other creatures, self awareness. Why? Was that so they could find the weaknesses, the blind spots, in the other less crafty creatures and use those against them? Suffice it to say that that's been done. Man has achieved dominion over the earth. But why? 
Again, look out the window wherever you are. Chances are it's not entirely a nature scene. Whatever has not been constructed by nature is of man. 
Does whatever you're looking at look amazing? Or does it look ordinary, perhaps in need of some paint, some repair? Rust might be evident, weeds, there might be wreckage or refuse of some kind around the edges, perhaps. Whatever it is it ain't a perfect scene. Am I right?
Yeah, I've been around. Even the best neighborhoods show their flaws. 
So- is this the view that a dominant species wants to have, or is there room for a better one? If there's room, this species better get to work and not just talk about fixing things. After all, you've got dominion. You should be able to get it done. No other species is stopping you, and the earth cooperates fully, offering the dominant species resources aplenty. Nothing says dominant species more than surveying everything you can see and thinking "It's all there for the taking! A buffet meal bigger than Vegas! How 'bout we call it 'The Garden of Eden'?
(just don't eat the apples)
(Oops. Too late....) 

King Of The Beasts

Najib Kalil- Unsplash.com

It's true that the dominant species has come a long way, there's no doubt about that. History, what the dominant species is allowed to know about it, shows a steady progression, though one with quite a few bumps and rough patches. "Best they could do at the time" say the historians, "given the difficulties inherent in people trying to get along". Soooo difficult, that part. 
Problem is, and always has been, that within the dominant species have been those ones who wished to themselves dominate, which hasn't worked out too well, has it? Oh, there have been brief experiences by individuals who stood at the helm of empires but those empires haven't lasted long because it never was too popular, for the people on the other side of their borders, to sit there waiting for the inevitable invasion to arrive. 
You'd think the dominant species would've learned that and more by now because over time comes the common sense realization that with a little cooperation and some stable trust things could get built that last and actually make the populace happy but..... 
.....too much work, those at the top say. 
  Can't figure it out.
     Can ya give us another two thousand or so years?

Team Player

This is the time of year when upper management takes a look at the year ahead and decides to makes some changes. This usually means that it's time to cull the herd. 
It's not easy for them- or maybe it is- but it has to be done, in their estimation, to move the business forward in the direction that they want it to go. There's no room for pity and so the cuts are made and the affected players leave the stage. 
 I hate to see this sort of thing happen but I've seen it many times. In a place I once worked, there was always a question whether or not I would survive the annual round of cuts, but I somehow did. Others did not. I heard about what happened to them, how their lives after working at the company were fairing, but not for long. They disappeared, blended back into the workforce in some other way. 
      So I've been there. I have experienced the dread, many times. 
  There is a lack of trust that gets developed when you witness this sort of thing firsthand. Despite what you think are your best efforts, somebody higher up might think differently and there's no negotiating once they've made their decision. It's clean out your desk, you've got fifteen minutes, and then 'off the property' you go. It's quite humiliating, I imagine, to be walked out the door, blindsided, with a box of your things in your hands. 
Or to have to give up the company car you've been tooling around in and be chauffeured home. 
Those that remain are nervous, on their best behavior, and are exemplary team players- for a while- 'till the old acrimony and infighting resurfaces. But that's healthier than pretending that they all like each other and are getting along famously. 

We rock

rawpixel- Unsplash.com

    Having witnessed this over and over, methinks there must be a better way. Rather than things coming to a head, the result of the affected ones' making poor choices, being a wrong fit, becoming overwhelmed, being abrasive, and all the rest, what would it be like to work on real team? One that is functional, driven, capable, amazing? These exist. What makes those ones work and the other teams fail? What is their secret, their method of interacting? How do they address issues? Surely they could give the many struggling teams pointers. 
I know that there are tons of management books out there that talk about this but I don't want book learning, I've had enough of that. I want to get this right right off the bat right now. In order to grow my vision, I need to get on the right team. How is this going to be made manifest? Mission statement? Cash flow? Serendipity? Synchronicity? Right timing? All of the above?

It's hard to Make It Happen solo. With the right team.......
....the sky is the limit.

Undignified

Dignity is defined as the quality of being worthy of honor and respect. How does this apply to the overall American condition?
There seems to be a great lack of dignity these days, compared to the days of olde, which weren't so very long ago. The flowery prose of cultured English writers and the writings of American statesmen of the 17 & 1800's were awash in carefully crafted elucidations of the inherent nobility of man but since then we've backslid terribly, in my estimation. No longer are there high hopes that mankind, given the support of education, the guidance of chosen religion, and the nourishment that comes from proper governance, can grow into distinguished creatures. Nowadays man is just a commodity, common, and though we still claim to be setting the cultural standard- proudly saying that America is the 'Number One Country In The World', the actual way we treat our citizens shows that we have a long way to go. 

We’re not turkeys! We’re EAGLES!

Tof Mayanoff- Unsplash.com

We talk about 'basic human dignity' as if there was an acceptable level of this quality, and as competitive Americans are wont to do, we set the bar for such acceptability low and claim that the lesser ones are being treated appropriately. Are they? 
While 'tis true that some individual citizens can't be raised up very far due to their having non-conformity issues, say their mental abilities might be subpar, we seem perfectly able to classify whole groups of people as being not worth more than basic consideration. “To the most competitive go the spoils and it must be that way lest the competitive ones lose their edge and they themselves be dominated” is the belief.

There's a lot of fear there, fear is driving this. God forbid that any of the ultra-competitive should adopt a softer stance for to do so would be to expose a weakness. That's why we're Number One- we let no possibility escape our ability to exercise it, play with it, try it out in real life. This keeps us one step ahead of ‘the competition’, inside this country or without. Don't mess with me or us, 'cuz we're masters of the craft of craftiness. 
  Can we drop that sort of thinking? It has served us in the past, very well, but it hobbles us in moving forward. Many progressive countries in the world have shown that they can be competitive and raise the social standards bar. But never mind that, many Americans say. We've covered our messy moral obligations. What more do you want? The less capable, willing, or cunning have their 'basic human dignity’ needs met. 
At least they have that.
They have the minimal acceptable degree of honor and respect. That should be enough. Any more than that has to be earned by achievement. Greater honor and respect must be given those who advance themselves and/or the overall human condition. The more capable and active participants deserve it. 
Okay. I can see sense in that sort of reasoning but again, I would have to say that the bar that measures basic human dignity has been steadily lowered over time, and when in political, business, and social arenas there exist wildly divergent positions on what constitutes 'honor' and 'respect' it says a lot about where we as a country stand. When the gap between the rich and the not so is incomprehensibly vast, the justification is always "At least those at the bottom are treated with basic human dignity". 
Nah. Nobody really believes that. Basic human dignity is under attack in these times and what has been offered up as such is not what We The People would ever choose, if they were given a choice. It's that simple. 
Conditioning the populace to be content with meager and miserly shares blinds them to the glaring amount of honor and respect that this country is capable of providing. Fulfilling the vision, the lofty ideals the Founding Fathers had for this pristine and beautiful gift of a country, filled with so much potential, costs money so ‘be content with less’ is the message.

Be satisfied with your lot because at least you have your 'basic human dignity' needs met.

Hogwash, say I! We deserve much better.