Archive for March, 2011

Looking recently at Madison Wisconsin and today London, it seems that violence… the preferred method of change in the Arab world… has finally infected the West as well.

Not to our credit, I might add.

One of the great tragedies of human history is that we have always confused e-volution with revolution.  Re-volution, especially violent re-volution, has always been just that: a return trip around a failed and worn out path strewn with the casualties of war.

Is it conceivable we will allow ourselves to be led like lambs to slaughter down that road yet again?  To watch the youth in England today destroying everything in their path, its an easy leap to conclude the answer is “Yes.”

I don’t blame them.  I blame us.

They’re young.  They learned from us.  As too many of us in positions of responsibility remained silent, those with an agenda crept into our schools, universities and, more insidiously, into our children’s minds.  The young want what they want and they want it now… and if they can’t have it… well… they’re being encouraged by those with a hidden agenda to believe that violence is an acceptable expression of their discontent.

Our children grew up in a world where media violence, instant gratification, material acquisition, power for its own sake, and government subsidies were and remain the norm.   By example, we have taught them poorly.  And while we were neglecting our responsibility to the future, others were all too ready and willing to embrace it.

Now, if we allowed it to reach this point, it must be we who puts an end to it.

How?

By rapidly and visibly changing the way we do things.

By assuming responsibility for our every thought, word and deed.

By reprioritizing our time and our expression of what we value.

By acting like competent, capable adults able to make hard choices so the young have something, and someone, to emulate.

We’re running out of time.  Let’s not waste a moment.  Decide what you value.  Speak of it often.  Live it with certainty.

Before the momentum of violence becomes irreversible, join in the e-volution.  It’s a higher road that leads to a grander view.

Oh, and did I mention?… peace.

 

Disclosure #1:  I’m a Glenn Beck fan.  I like the guy.  While a little paranoid, he does his homework and as far as the facts go, he gives them to you.  What you do with them is up to you.

Disclosure #2:  I’ve hardly ever watched Lawrence O’Donnell, and the few clips I’ve seen did nothing to encourage me otherwise.  Admitted Socialists aren’t my preference for where to get political commentary.

Now, to the point.

There’s been a battle of ideas playing out between Beck and O’Donnell and, more than that, it seems personal.  While I have no “dog in the hunt” for what’s personal between them, I’m very interested in the battle of ideas.  So this morning , I watched clips from both on their ideas surrounding the Bible (Torah & The New Testament), in general, and the Book of Revelations, in particular.

And you know what?  They’re both right.

Beck is right in that the Bible is filled with divinely inspired ideas, ideals, values and guidance. O’Donnell is also right in that parts of the Bible are filled with poetry, allegory, and unintelligible symbolism… some of which can lead a thinking person to conclude the existence of multiple sources which were neither divine nor particularly loving and compassionate.

That’s what Free Will is all about.

We humans, each get to choose how we see and interpret the world in which we live.  It is our unique perspectives that then form the foundation for how we act within the world as we see it.  And each choice we make is a choice of Self- definition.

If G-d had intended replication rather than creation, He/She would be turning us out on a copy machine rather than through the birth process… whereby each of Us arrives as a unique creation.

In a world where both diversity of thought and tolerance of opposing ideas are both encouraged and valued, we are more likely to stumble upon wisdom than in a world where either You or I must be right and the other wrong.

Let’s take the best of Beck and O’Donnell’s thinking and jettison the rest.  And by the way, You and I may each see “the best of” differently.

That’s okay.

It’s why I wrote this post.

 

Moments ago President Obama spoke to the nation, and presumably the world, on his decision to join with the international community in a coordinated response to the violence perpetrated by Libyan dictator Muammar Qadaffi upon the Libyan people.

Early in the speech, the President said that from the outset, the United States had been swift and certain in its condemnation of Qadaffi’s actions.  While this sounded good, it was a lie.  If fact, a week of atrocities occurred during which the President remained curiously silent.  His press secretary, in responding to why this was so, cited “scheduling problems.” Yet, during that same week, the President was able to suddenly find the time to schedule coaching his daughter’s basketball team because the coach “had a scheduling problem.”  The President’s daughter was not even present for the game he coached.

I am less concerned here with the President’s motives, or lack thereof, in responding selectively to Middle East revolutionaries.  I leave that to others.

What does concern me is the current, palpable lack of leadership with which we are faced.  This President is unlike any other I can recall in my lifetime. His disengagement from the American people is disturbing but timely.

(Did she just write, “timely?”)

Yes, I did.

It’s timely because we’ve arrived at a point in the evolution of human Consciousness where we must all be leaders.  We must all take charge every minute of every day of our thoughts, words and deeds.  We must each source within and find what is true and meaningful for us as individuals… while fully knowing that we are all connected.

We have awakened to the truth of Oneness.  Whether it is the heroic and admirable people of Japan facing multiple tragedies, the tortured and oppressed peoples of Libya, or the 12-year-old daughter of a slain Israeli family who is now orphaned along with her two brothers… we are all One and responsible for One And Other… one another.

For Our Self and The Other because we are all connected.

So, I am less concerned with one man’s action and timing than I am with yours and mine.  Hope and Change are just words.  No single individual will turn the tide as quickly as each and every individual awaking to rise and meet the challenges of personal responsibility and connectedness.

The owner of an Israeli supermarket has been providing food for the three remaining children of the slain Fogel family during the shiva (seven day mourning period).  He informed the 12-year-old daughter who found her slain parents and brothers that “she better get used to” seeing him around because he is going to provide weekly food for she and her two surviving brothers until the last orphan is 18 years old.

Now that’s hope and change and that’s how we do it.

Let’s leave the posturing and politics to the United Nations and world governments.

 

It’s never easy to look for and find a “higher purpose” in tragic events.  Sometimes, in fact, doing so appears almost heartless.  So I am well aware of the dangers in what I am about to say.

The events in Japan are akin to a global 911 of natural origin.  I think they hold the potential for rebirth, healing and unity for much of the world.  However, before I go there, let me say that I’ve been broken hearted over the loss of life and suffering being experienced by the Japanese people.  I have been praying for them daily since the earthquake and tsunami struck.

Now, to what I mean by a “global 911.”  On September 11^th, tragedy struck on an unprecedented scale, lives were lost, and commerce interrupted.  The reaction, although admittedly brief, was Oneness.  Not only did all of this nation’s citizens pull together to help respond to every conceivable need, but so did many individuals and nations from around the world. There was a temporary understanding by humanity’s Consciousness that we are all in deed connected and, therefore, united we stand.

There’s no terrorist behind what is occurring in Japan.  It’s Earth and Nature in service to restoring balance to a world that has veered far off course and that is very out of balance.  Again, I am sensitive to how callous this may sound but in order for caterpillar to be transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillar must relinquish its physical form.

Something similar is happening in Japan.  Believe that I value all life forms and see not one human Being as expendable.  But as painful and tragic as this catastrophe and loss of life is, its form that’s being altered.  There is no corresponding destruction of Spirit.

We are all connected. We have been disrespectful of one another and the Earth.  We have been insensitive, greedy and lacking in compassion.  We have ignored our Oneness.  We have  created the imbalance.

Nature is infinitely more powerful and resourceful than we.  No amount of manmade protection or planning will outstay It’s staying power.  This is what we are witnessing in Japan.

We can awaken NOW and do what we did not do after 911.  We can lay down our differences  and our indifference to honor how connected we are to each other and the Earth that sustains us.  We can know and act in accordance with that knowing that this is the moment of “united we stand or divided we fall.”

In compassion… we can weep for those suffering and those lost.

In wisdom… we can know that every thought, word and deed matters.

In Our knowing, we can act as One.

 

Pattern realignment is what is commonly called “change.” Chaos is a natural and necessary byproduct of change.  What we are witnessing in the Middle East is an effort at political realignment.  I use the word effort because only time will tell the outcome.  And not much time at that.

Egypt, Tunisia,& Libya have all experienced major revolts while  Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iran, Iraq, Jordon, Oman and Yemen have had significant protests.   There is nothing uncertain or meek about how determined these populations are in expressing their exhaustion with the status quo or their impatience in demanding an end to it.

Revolution can be a good thing… or not.  The most common and oft referenced examples are the American vs. the French.  One ended in a Republic and the other in beheadings and a return to Monarchy.

So what will likely be the outcome this latest and widespread populist upheaval?

While I think history can be instructive, I don’t think it will be determinative or conclusive at this particular moment in the evolution of human Consciousness.

Why?  Because we’ve never been here before.

Here is a transcendent moment.  By this I mean that if we can view events in the Middle East and around the world, generally, from a higher vantage point (“higher ground” as I like to say) we have the opportunity to co-create an unprecedented global future wherein individuality is honored within a framework of worldwide connectivity.

It’s a BIG if.

Why?  Because people and systems entrenched in power don’t go down without a fight.   And because we humans tend to be an impatient lot.

No matter how well intentioned and fueled the emergent tidal wave of freedom currently is throughout the Middle East, unless there is a will to endure with our humanity in tact through the uncertainty and birth pangs of co-creating a new paradigm for governance that honors the individual, the culture, and its role in an interdependent world… those antiquated forces fighting for survival will prevail.

I recently read a great line in Spontaneous Evolution by Bruce Lipton and Brruce Bhaerman.  It was “Love a cancer cell to death.”  The message is based upon scientifically verifiable experiments at the quantum level that 1) the observer has a direct influence upon the observed and 2) Love heals, literally.

Perhaps this understanding can be applied elsewhere… even the Middle East.  Love the old regimes to death and, in their place, envision one giant leap for human Consciousness.

It’s our best hope.