Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

>     Someone made an interesting comment about my blog yesterday. Because it’s my nature to see if there is any credence or learning for me in the truth of another, I have given the comment due consideration and come to my conclusion.
    But first, the comment. The person told me that as to the content of my blog, “it’s always the same message” and so he has stopped reading it. Now, ordinarily this might be a hurtful message to give a writer, especially one who aspires to inspire others. So, I had to look carefully at the comment and be honest with myself. After due consideration, I have decided that he is right. However, rather than it being the basis for folding my tent and moving on, so to speak, his observation re-energizes me in my mission and motivates me to continue along this chosen path.
    Why?
    Because he is right. There is only One message. Just as there is only One Source, One You, One Me, and One of Us. That is the underlying structure upon which I build every blog entry. And the reason it is both the foundation and the repetition is because like all things new, it will take time and reinforcement to become the accepted norm.
    We have lived thousands of years under an illusion of separation and the consequences of division, aggression, competition and war that separation breeds. It will take time to establish a comfort level with the new awareness of our connectedness and all that it implies.
    It will also take repeated exposure to the multifaceted and multidimensional ways in which that connectedness, the Oneness, plays out in our lives. My contribution to reinforcing the underlying principle is to show how and where, in our daily lives, the principle can be detected and applied. And so, I look at personal, local, national and international stories to extract and highlight the seed of Oneness that is inherent in everything that occurs, no matter how obscure it may seem at first glance. For what I am doing is teaching an exercise in consciousness development that is here for the taking.
    One of the things I have learned in my life thus far is best summed up in a parable about the Buddha.

One day there was a knock on the Buddha’s door. Upon opening it, a man confronted the Buddha and began to rail against the Buddha’s teachings, insulting the Buddha as well. After allowing the man to express himself fully, the Buddha looked the man in the eyes and said.”Thank you. But I cannot accept your gifts. You’ll have to take them with you when you leave.”
    The man who made the comment about “there being only one message” has obviously chosen to pass on the opportunity to reinforce the message. I can only hope that in so doing, he is choosing to find alternative resources that mirror and thereby reinforce for him, on a daily basis, the magnificence of the unfolding that we are All Now a part of.
    And I wish him well as he leaves on his journey.
   

>     I am in the habit of briefly tuning in to some talk radio shows each morning just to get the drift of each day’s stories before I write my blog. This morning, Glenn Beck was doing a commercial at the end of one of the segments. It was for a product that let’s you access the files on your PC from any computer no matter where you are. As part of the sales pitch, he said that he no longer believes in a “balanced” life but now believes in an “integrated” one. In support of his new perspective, he gave the example of how he now does his “homework” along side his children while they are doing theirs and he “learns more about what’s going on” in their lives this way than in prior deliberate attempts to converse with them.
    No offense, Glenn, but any mother who has ever driven her child to or from anywhere as part of her job description, or stayed home with a child who wasn’t feeing well and read a story or played a game to pass the time, knows that you learn more about your child in those unscripted moments than in all your deliberate efforts combined.
    Now I understand that Glenn is a Dad and not a Mom so (sexism aside) it may have taken him a decade or two (and a child or four) longer to figure this out. Plus, he’s got a pretty demanding career. But the fact that this was some sort of revelation for him made me think that perhaps it’s worth elaborating upon.
    When people bemoan “the good old days” it’s often a longing for a time recalled only for it’s high points and little else. For in reality, there is no “good old day” that was exempt from all the fundamental challenges of Life. However, one legitimate yearning for what was may be for a time when things were slower paced, and therefore, created more “space” between obligations that allowed us as people, and particularly as parents, to just “hang out” with one another. It’s in “hanging out” that we discover the little things about others that are not always readily apparent…and certainly not knowable “on the run.”
    The pace of the technology has created many “overlays” between aspects of our lives better kept separate. This makes it imperative that we re-prioritize our obligations based upon our inner-most intentions in order to bring enhanced meaning to relationships…personal and professional.
    One caution about Mr. Beck’s concept of an integrated life as opposed to a balanced one. It’s possible to be integrated and out of balance at the same time. These are not mutually exclusive concepts. You can find a way to bring diverse aspects of your life into new relationship to one another and still have a disproportionate amount of time and energy going to some parts as opposed to others.
    And by the way, it’s also possible to integrate the various aspects of your life in form only without being fully conscious and aware of their substance or, for that matter, what your responsibility is in relationship to it all.
    I do offer congratulations to Mr. Beck for his awakening around this subject. I would only suggest that he, as should we all, seek to create paced, balanced and integrated lives that manifest the best of what we are capable of as Beings Human.

>     Last week the petite, young wife of a Chinese TV News and Sports Reporter interrupted a televised promotional event meant to outline her husband’s TV station’s coverage of the pending Chinese Olympics. It seems the wife had, only hours prior, discovered that her husband was having an affair and took the opportunity to let the world know as well. A video of the actual event is floating around YouTube. In today’s world, there really are no secrets…at least not for long.
    Several aspects of this story grip me.
    First, we have a daughter from China. Watching several men trying to “corral” that petite young woman and move her off the stage was sad. But the aftermath is more than sad, it’s disgraceful. I have read that the young woman has been arrested, without benefit of judge or jury, and will remain incarcerated until after the Olympics. If this is true, human rights and womens’ groups around the world should be expressing their outrage. And if that’s not enough to have her released, may I suggest that no female athlete participate in the upcoming Olympics to be held in China unless she’s released. There may not be many ways to move an elephant…but there are a few.
    I take more than a little comfort in knowing that while I wish that someday my daughter enters into a loving, committed marriage, should that turn out not to be the case she will have the option to simply hire a lawyer and secure her marital rights. I’ll lose no sleep wondering if she’ll wind up in jail for making public the shameful behavior her husband tried to keep private.
    Secondly, let’s talk about that husband’s alleged behavior. If true, it’s certainly not confined to China and Now. It’s as old as recorded history, as is the unequal societal and legal responses to men who are promiscuous versus women who are. Under Sharia law, women are beheaded for that which men are admired. Even in democratic countries, there is still societal stigma and lowered opinion of women who have affairs. Yet, men wear them as some sort of accomplishment and are not subject to the same reactions. In fact, my husband has a “cute” little expression he favors about the male sex drive. He summarizes it by saying, “Basically, we’re dogs.” And while I believe he’s been true to our commitment, I think the saying is a rationale and justification for avoiding the challenges of growing past an ineffective perspective that inhibits real intimacy. Make no mistake, I condone neither male nor female infidelity. I simply condemn double standards and unequal justice.
    Thirdly, and most importantly, is the power of one, female voice. While I am certain there are those who would try and paint that young Chinese woman as mentally unstable, lacking in self-esteem, or vengeful, they would be wrong. It took a Herculean amount of courage to do what she did. To do it, she had to risk the outcry of the established thinking that she knew would follow, she had to announce to the world that her husband found her, in some petty way, “insufficient” (although his alleged behavior says infinitely more about his insufficiencies than hers), she had to face the consequences that might, and apparently have, resulted, and she had to anticipate living with the memory of her actions forever. This was a courageous act and, further, she had the inner strength to tie her comments to the lack of a human rights policy in China. What she was saying by that connection is that no nation can be a great nation without respecting equally all of its citizens. All means each...regardless of race, ethnicity, religious or political affiliation, age, and gender.
    So, a petite young woman from China has shone light upon a whole host of issues. She has done her job and done it well.
    Now the question remains, what do you and I do?
     
    
   
    
    

         >Yesterday before I left home in the morning I quickly checked out internet headlines and, of course, the big story was that TIME Magazine had chosen Vladimir Putin as Person of the Year. Upon returning home, I again checked out the headlines and found that, by evening, the big story had become that Britney Spears’ 16 year old sister Jamie Lynn, herself a television series star, is both single and pregnant.
    Two questions come to mind. “Is anybody conscious?” and “Where are their priorities?”
    I actually think the former provides an answer to the latter.
    It isn’t possible to be conscious (as in awake and present in the ‘here and now’ of Life)and choose Vladimir Putin as Person of the Year. I make this assertion because once one understands the power of thought combined with the powers of both intention and deed, one would never give energy to a person or idea such as Putin or what he represents. To “glorify” him (and that is what placing his face on the cover of TIME does…no matter how TIME’s editorial board tries to justify and rationalize their choice) is to empower both him and the energies of domination he represents. These are energies of a failed past that the world is moving beyond. TIME, by its action, gives life to an attempt at resurrecting that past.
    So, the editorial board of TIME is unconscious. Much of media appears to be, as well. The awareness we all need to have around this thought is that an unconscious creator creates by default…not by design.
    A “default drive” cannot prioritize. It creates by rote. What has been “is” and what “is” will continue to be. So, as the media remains stuck in unconscious creation, it perceives that the sex life and moral choices of a 16-year-old actress are what matter.
    Not so much.
    To conscious individuals, the highest good for all concerned is the place to focus thoughts, intentions and deeds. Conscious individuals understand the power of individual creativity as well as the cumulative power of collective creativity. My thoughts matter, and they matter that much more when combined with, and aligned with, yours. Ad infinitum.
    So rather than Putin and Spears, I prefer to direct my energy and focus on making myself a better person each day. I am committed to not allowing myself to be distracted by the misguided wanderings of people, and organizations, with apparent power.
    True power is neither Putin’s, because he is President of a nation, nor Spears’ because she is famous. Both are transient and illusory states. True power is knowing that they are, in fact, transient and illusory states. Being aware of how we behave today, where we place our thoughts, focus our intention and manifest our deeds is to know the purpose of Life and to have prioritized in light of that knowing.
    

>New Jersey today became the first state in more than three decades to abolish the death penalty. I live in New Jersey and have a 14-year-old daughter so this was not an easy subject for me to find my bearings on. If you recall, it was in 1994 that 7-year-old Meagan Kanka was abducted, raped and then strangled to death by 46-year-old Jesse Timmendequas. It was that horrific crime that led to the passage of “Meagan’s Law” and the federal “Sex Offender Act of 1994” both of which place post-incarceration restrictions and reporting duties upon persons convicted of sexual crimes against children.
    This is a tough subject and one not easily approached by someone who has never had a loved one harmed, violated or murdered. I cannot imagine how a parent feels who loses a child or (if lucky enough to have their child survive an attack) lives with a child who was subject to such inhumanity and abuse. It would be easy to understand why parents, under those conditions, might want to see “justice done” by knowing the perpetrator, if captured, was put to death.
    Yet I marvel when I see parents or loved ones of a murder victim on television, or in print interviews, express their “forgiveness” and advocate that no higher purpose would be served by executing the murderer. It’s a natural reaction if one wonders, “Where do those people get that kind of strength?”
    I think I know.
    It comes from a deep knowing that there are Universal Laws that provide us with the opportunity to heal not only ourselves but all of humankind as well. One of those laws is surely that killing another human being for any reason carries with it consequences and ramifications that go well beyond both the individuals and the moment. Violence begets violence. Even if you couch it in “humane” terms and conditions…lethal injections, blindfolds, whatever…the veil is transparent and serves only to hide the truth from those who are determined not to see it. Yes, violence begets violence.
    One of the 8 men who have been on death row in New Jersey is Jesse Timmendequas, Megan Kanka’s murderer. He will now spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole. I have thought about the two alternatives, death vs. life imprisonment, in light of this particular case and here is how I see it.
    If we, as a people, put Jesse Timmendequas to death, we violate one of those Universal laws we know in our hearts to be true…and with some distinction (although not enough) we become somewhat more like him than not. If, however, he lives out his life in prison, there are two possibilities.
    The first is that unenlightened and without remorse, his freedom and quality of life are taken away and he remains like a caged animal for whatever time is his by design. If, on the other hand, he gains some enlightenment and feels some level of remorse, then he will live every waking moment and breath every life-sustaining breath with the knowledge and reality of the heinous and inhuman act he committed. Either way, imprisoned for life, his is a damned fate.
    Which leaves me with Megan’s family. How to justify the continued life of the man who took the one gifted to their daughter? I would not begin to try.
    What I would say to them is that another of those Universal Laws is that failing to forgive is a prison of it’s own making…one in which they would keep themselves bound for no reason at all. The murderer’s prison is real and necessary. Not so theirs. They are free not only to forgive him but to forgive Life as well for such seeming injustice.
    We are human and because of that limitation too often see only part of the picture, thereby missing what the whole canvas portrays. Megan Kanka gave her life so that countless other children might be spared suffering and harm. It was a life so very well spent.
    May her family live on, and move on, with both honor and forgiveness in their hearts.

         >There appears to be some controversy brewing over Oprah Winfrey’s support of Barack Obama. Reaction to her speeches on his behalf appear to be circling around the idea that she is injecting race into the election by her references to Dr. Martin Luther King and Obama’s candidacy being a seminal moment in African American history. I’d like to weigh in on this matter but I am not an African-American.
    Which is exactly the point.
    It’s too cheap and easy to accuse her of playing the race card.” I’d say that’s a pretty superficial rendering of what’s likely going on for her. You see, while I am not an African American, I am a Jew. This fact allows me 1) to partially understand her feelings as a minority within a majority culture and 2)know what it’s like to have someone from your heritage ascend, for the first time, to a position of such magnitude.
    Allow me to take those two points in reverse order.
    I can still recall the excitement I felt when Senator Joe Lieberman was selected as Al Gore’s Vice Presidential running mate in 2000. To live in a time and place when a practicing (or even had he been a non-practicing) Jew was able to be recognized and acknowledged for his talents and contributions and considered for the second highest political office in the country was a moment of extreme pride. When I spoke of it to others, Jew and non-Jew alike, I wasn’t “playing the religion card”…I was simply basking in the reality of having arrived at a place certain after a long and arduous journey. For me, as a Jew, not to have seen it in the context of all that came before it, would have been to somehow rob the moment of it’s meaning.
    So too, for Oprah. I doubt her references to Dr. King and the potential importance of this moment have anything to do with “playing the race card.” To the contrary, Dr. King was not about separation and segregation. He was about unity and a colorblind nation. Anyone who missed that would obviously misread Oprah’s references and mistake her pride for something insidious.
    My other point is more delicate. It is not possible for someone who is not a member of a minority to truly feel the experience of being one. I can only come so close to the African American experience as a result of my religious heritage. 
    I can still vicerally recall the first time I visited Israel. On Friday afternoon, all of the stores began to close for the Sabbath. People were rushing about buying groceries and men were buying the traditional Shabbat bouquet of flowers to take home for the Sabbath meal. Most people I passed on the street smiled and exchanged “Shabbat Shalom” (Sabbath of peace) greetings. I was overwhelmed with the sense of what it felt like to be in the majority. And the feeling was stunning. I have never forgotten it.
    This is, however, as close as I can come to the experience of African Americans. The reason for that is that when I walk into a room or a public place, I do not visibly project my minority status. I can be a Jew and no one might know. But an African American will be seen as such and reacted to as such without question. Those reactions will depend upon the level of enlightenment of others. I can only assume that more often than one would hope those reactions are unkind and the source of great pain.
    So, please, let us not decide how Oprah Winfrey should feel or speak about the candidacy of Barack Obama. We have not walked in her shoes and we do not know what is in her heart.
    I prefer to believe that Oprah’s references to Dr. King, and her support of Obama’s candidacy, are the joyful manifestation of a long awaited dream come true…in a country where we pride ourselves on dreams coming true.

>     Well, it appears that Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is very sorry for an indelicate question he recently posed during an interview with a New York Times reporter. After discussing whether or not Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith should influence a voter’s choice, Huckabee apparently offered up, unsolicited, the question/comment, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”
    I have always believed that being a good listener is an art. When you know how to truly listen, you can learn a great deal about a person by what they say, what they don’t say, and what lies unsaid between their spoken words. So, listening to Mike Huckabee’s quote was, for me, not unlike listening to Mel Gibson rant anti-Semitic profanities after being pulled over for DUI. 
    Now your first reaction may be that this isn’t a valid comparison because Gibson was drunk at the time of his hateful speech and Huckabee was not. But I would say they are exactly alike in that both men revealed what is in their minds, and more importantly, their hearts. Any recovering alcoholic will tell you that it’s “never the alcohol speaking”…it’s you. While being drunk may cause you to be louder (or sometimes softer) than you would be sober…or have you make more of a fool of yourself than you would otherwise…it won’t cause you to say something that, substantively, you don’t think and/or believe. And while running for President of the United States may cause you to try and please too many for the sake of a vote, it won’t make you say what you do not think and/or believe.
    Even if I give Mike Huckabee the benefit of the doubt, which I must do as a spiritual Being, and conclude that his was an honest question in search of an honest answer, the fact that he posed it in such an inappropriate venue and directed it to such an inappropriate person, tells me that his judgment and common sense are simply not Presidential.  
    So what can we learn from Governor Huckabee’s indiscretion? I think a lot…particularly about right speech. It’s the origin of the saying “If you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all.” But it goes much deeper than the adage appears on it’s face. Because we literally create what we think, when we give “body” to thought by wrapping it in speech we manifest into our world that which we are thinking. That makes it pretty important that we be vigilant about both what we think and what we say.
    Mel Gibson and Mike Huckabee were both contrite when what they thought and said created a public backlash. That, at least, is a good thing. It is important to stop evil speech in it’s tracks so that we do not feed the beast and perpetuate a world of separation and baseless hatred.
    I repeatedly say that we are living in extraordinary times as human consciousness expands and evolves. I also repeatedly say that as the expansion is occurring, it becomes more and more difficult to hide truth and manipulate others.
    Governor Huckabee has told us who he is and what he thinks by what he said and how he chose to say it.
    Properly seen, it is a gift of truth that now frees up the Governor to re-evaluate what is in his heart and frees up the rest of us to vote for someone else.
    

>Today, I listened to a nationally acclaimed radio talk show
host asking why the “liberal” media wasn’t placing responsibility on
Rosie O’Donnell, Al Franken and other “Christian-bashing liberals” for
the shooter in Colorado who entered a Christian place of worship and Christian Mission and
randomly killed several people before being shot himself. It seems the
talk show host assumed that the shooter was driven to his act by the
rantings of the “Left” against the Conservative “Right.”  The host also
wanted “equal time” (and I can only assume equal blame attributed) for what he
sees as the liberal media propensity for characteristically charging Conservatives and Christians with “hate-mongering” against
gays, feminists, immigrants and African-Americans.
    It turns out the shooter was actually a former employee (or volunteer) for Youth With A Mission, the site of the first attack and shooting. He had apparently had a falling out with the organization several years prior and had been writing threatening letters ever since. So it appears to have been a “Christian” against “Christian” crime. So much for the desire, or need, to implicate the liberal media.
    The second point the talk show host made is more troubling…because it is more likely founded in fact. There is a general consensus among certain segments of the population, and media, that Conservative implies a certain narrowness and exclusivity of thinking that condescends to others who are not mainstream and white. This, of course, is absurd.
    As is all stereotyping.
    But here’s the heart of the matter…or the lack of heart, as it were.
    Why are we still not evolved enough to stop blaming anyone, and anything other than ourselves, rather than take responsibility for the state of our lives and the state of our nation?  It neither serves us personally, nor collectively, to try and pass on to others the effects of the choices we make or fail to make.
    Violence and hatred in our society are not the result of Liberal Democrats, Conservative Republicans, Libertarians, Rosicrucians, Wiccans or any other single political or religious organization or movement. They are the result of each of us refusing to make the difficult ethical and spiritual choices around what is good versus what is convenient.
    When we stop holding hatred and violence in our hearts and minds we will stop creating them in our reality. When we stop creating them in our reality we will stop having to suffer the consequences of our own thoughts and actions.
    It will be easy to dismiss this as not pertaining to you since you don’t “hate” anyone and you aren’t “violent.” But before you dismiss it completely and let yourself off this hook, ask yourself if you truly accept and allow others their differences of thought and belief without harboring either disdain or condescension towards them. Ask yourself if when in your car someone cuts you off you either think or react in a way that is retaliatory or anger based. Because while a yes to either of these examples (or similar examples) does not not make you a murderer, they are all none-the-less the seeds of hated and violence.
    In order to truly eradicate from our world that which we find reprehensible we must start with our own choices of thought and action and be vigilant around them.
    While there’s more than enough “blame” to go around…blame is a dead-end circle leading nowhere. The path to a loving, peaceful, non-violent world is down a road populated with loving, peaceful, non-violent people.
    I’d like us to meet on that road. How about you?

>     The deeply disturbed 19-year-old gunman who sought “fame” by going on a shooting rampage at a Nebraska mall, killing 8 and wounding 5 others substantially achieved his goal. In the world of “15 minutes of fame” in which we live, CNN and other media outlets have, since the rampage occurred, more than granted him his wish by headlining his photo and identifying him by name for over 24 hours now…setting yet another example for yet another disturbed person to emulate.
    Fast food and fast fame, it appears, make for a diseased society. Which is what has me thinking about volunteerism and service to others.
    A recent poll by South Jersey Magazine found Pennsylvania and New Jersey 32 and 33 out of 50 states in the time their citizens spend volunteering.  Now, because I live in New Jersey, I was naturally less than proud of the statistical finding. But it wasn’t the ranking that got my attention, it was the apparent overall belief of those polled that giving money is the same as, and an acceptable substitute for, giving time.
    No, it’s not…although this belief does match up with the often-voiced Conservative cry that we are “the most charitable nation in the world” based upon dollars given.
    The problems with this assumption and conclusion are two-fold. 1) There is so much corruption, or at least monumental waste, within almost every large organization that what is given is but a fraction of what actually winds up with the intended recipient or doing any real good. 2) While it is money that purchases food and supplies and pays the way for emergency workers to be transported to crisis locations, it’s always the helping hand, the hug, the kind word, the physical and emotional interaction of one person with another that makes the real impact and has the lasting effect.
    I have always thought that one of the real tragedies of 9/11 (following the loss of life) was the missed opportunity by President George Bush to ask each of us to step up and volunteer time in helping one another as a way of life and to personally alter our lifestyles to reduce our dependence upon foreign oil. He would have hit a home run with that one, and by so doing, caused us to make a significant and positive impact upon the quality of life in this country.
    My father was a very charitable man. He literally never saw or heard of suffering (human or animal) that he did not reach into his wallet and make a contribution. It’s a great legacy and one of which I am proud. But as each new generation sees things differently, and hopefully for the better, I have come to the conclusion that it’s the one-on-one acts of love that make the real difference.
    Personally, I have come up short in this regard. Always ready to provide a kind, encouraging or inspirational word to friends and others who cross my path, I have been remiss in donating real time on an individual basis. That’s why tomorrow I have an interview to volunteer 5-20 hours a month as a child advocate for the court system. As a former practicing attorney, mother, and plain old human being, I’m certain I can be of value. It’s just a start, but I know in my heart that “service” is the answer and so serve I must.
    There are as many ways to serve as there are people so just pick one that suits you and get on with it.
    Fifteen minutes of fame for taking 8 lives and wounding 5 others is the most fleeting of outcomes and in the end amounts to nothing except, perhaps, a marred Soul. But a sustained personal effort intended to positively impact the lives of others becomes a legacy and gift that will most likely keep on giving long after we are gone.
    Now there’s a red carpet I’d like to walk down.
    
    

>    This week the International Tracing Service, administered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, unsealed 50 million pages of documents collected by the Allies near the end of WWII chronicling the atrocities committed during the Nazi era. The documents are housed in the German city of Bad Arolsen where it’s index references 17.5 million people in 16 linear miles of file space.
    This is not a good day for Holocaust deniers (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be sure)…although that’s not the focus of this entry.
    The more difficult topic to address is the Nazi within each of us. Just writing that sentence causes me to wince.
    It’s not easy, or pleasant, to think that it might be true…that each of us is capable of doing what the Nazis and the German people did. And while I do believe that under the “right” circumstances each of us is capable of morally reprehensible acts, I do not mean to say that each of us is capable of committing the same acts committed by the Nazis. Rather, that we each have a propensity to rationalize and justify hurtful behavior…even morally reprehensible behavior…in the misguided belief that such behavior is key to our own survival and, therefore, somehow excusable and acceptable.
    It’s often said that Hitler’s psychological strategy played upon the disgrace and humiliation suffered by the German people following WWI. He gave them hope and, what’s key here for our purposes, he also gave them an excuse for their unhappiness. That excuse led to the oftentimes brutal deaths of 13 million people. No matter, it was justifiable (not to mention vengeful).
    We all do it, you know. I can tell you I do.
    I have a disagreement with my husband and while it remains  unresolved from my perspective, it’s seemingly resolved for him. Rather than accept the non-resolution, I harbor ill feelings around it and him. At some later time, that harbored ill feeling turns to anger. When an opportunity arises (related or un-reacted to the original disagreement) to express that built-up anger…I let it rip. Of course, my justification is that he hurt me by ignoring or refusing to see what was of significance to me
    And so the beast is fed.
    You may be thinking that my personal anger at my husband hardly rises to the level of Nazi genocide. But be careful, for what exists within the microcosm of our personal lives is but a fraction of what we project, and therefore create, within the macrocosm of our culture.
    I read an eye-opening quote yesterday in “Writing Spirit” by Lynn V. Andrews.
         “Your Einstein searched and searched for truth,
         and finally, it came to him. If he would have
         misused that wisdom he could not have conceived
         of it. All great scientists agree on that. What
         lesser people do with that knowledge is some-
         thing else. No one who has abilities and has
         grasped higher laws could ever hurt anyone.“

    So, whether it’s genocide or a marital spat, the intentional infliction of pain (mental, emotional, physical or spiritual) upon another is the shortcoming of the one causing it. It is our own limited understanding of the highest laws of the Universe that not only causes us to behave in such ways but also to justify our behavior in the name of self-survival.
    The reality, and the irony, is that with each hurtful act perpetrated upon another person or thing, we eat away at our own flesh and assure that the path to enlightenment and God remains obstructed with the refuse of our own misguided actions.
    Next time you have the opportunity to be angry or disappointed with someone else, go deep within yourself instead…drop the story you are telling yourself about their behavior, and ask yourself what you can do to break the chain of pain.
    I can assure you from personal experience that you will garner much more progress with that approach than with any other.
    You can ask my husband and me.