The Point and Pointlessness

There are only two things that motivate us to get out of bed every morning.  They are love and fear.  If we manage to get up and go to work each day it is because we either love our jobs or we are afraid of poverty.  If we do not have a job outside of our homes we may get up to take care of someone or something that we love, but lately there appears to be many who get out of bed each day just to put fear into others.

There is a state of being that we also experience when we are in a place where we are feeling neither.  All human responses are based on either love or fear, and when we are unable to feel either one of these emotions we are in that state where we will need to figure out what our response is going to be.  Some people do not recognize this as a place of regeneration. Regeneration itself is a terrifying thing to them.  Change is not what they are looking for in themselves.  They prefer to require it of others whom they expect to rearrange things to suit their needs. They do not understand that it is a necessary point in time when they are being told that they must wait for the knowledge which can only come in silence and stillness.  Getting in the face of others is increasingly becoming a norm as it continues to be the remedy of choice for many.  Because of this, we are facing the extinction of multitudes of human beings who cannot possibly solve their problems for them.

 Many situations in life have taught us that we must be quick about responding to everything or we will be punished or ostracized.  So many times we react impulsively and incorrectly to save face or avoid embarrassment. 

Author Bertrand Russell said “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” Our world now is a very fast-paced and changing one. It is a time when we have accelerated toward an unknown that would seem to be bent on destroying us. It is.  Do not be deceived by the distractions.  We are truly headed for an end.  It is the end of a way of life, but with the current trend of reacting with aggression it is likely to be the end of civilization.  Whether people have consciously recognized that fact or not, we are being steered toward that position where we need to be still and recognize where our responses need to come from in order to maintain life.  We would not be the first civilization to be wiped off the face of the earth.  Few civilizations were mightier than ancient Rome but it did not stand. The Mayans, the inhabitants of Easter Island and countless other cultures were conquered or absorbed by others for various reasons, but at the bottom of every loss of life and culture is an incorrect response to the winds of change. I see very few people who know or want to know that they could be consummately wrong in how they are responding in fear to things that they refuse to seek a balance in.  What they do seem convinced of is that the world they are familiar with is dying and they are so terrified that they are unknowingly accelerating the death of one era because they so fear its demise. 

When we fail to understand an evolutionary time and how some things must be taken in order for something else to be given we are making the transition a thousand times more difficult than it needs to be.  All change has pain involved.  Even if you are doing something that you have looked forward to for a long time, such as starting a new job, or a new relationship, going on vacation, or having child, there is always a certain amount of stress and fear that comes with the transition.  You can experience that stress with a love for the desired outcome or you can make the transition many times harder by not going to that place in between love and fear and allowing energies to guide you to the right response.

Since the church shooting in South Carolina, there has been an absurd trend happening in many cities – especially in the south, of people attaching Confederate flags to their vehicles and outside their homes.  What statement they are trying to make with this is difficult to say.  One can only assume that they are saying they support the reason behind the shooters ideals. If they thought about the reason that the Confederate flag ever existed they would know that it stood for a culture that approved of and sanctioned enslaving people for the monetary benefit of some. That particular culture and way of life had to change because no one has the right to enslave others.  I cannot imagine these flag wavers believing that it is right to have a society that supports this.  I can only assume that they believe that it is okay to enslave people that we cannot relate to, but it must be understood that if slavery and control of others exists it can exist for them as well.  That fact must have not even entered their radar, but it is only an idiot who can assume that he/she is free from the dangers of wealthy and powerful people deciding one day that people of any color or creed or nationality could be used as a commodity or chattel if they choose to make use of anyone who is perceived to be less intelligent and less powerful.

I see another trend that is happening rapidly in many parts of the world now that, if unchecked,   can destroy nations.  It is the mass migration of people from their homelands to nations that are in dire straits themselves.  The desire to flee their country’s problems is understandable but it is a sure fire way to make sure that the problems will never be solved.  Without unity and solidarity against tyranny there is no hope, and they are knowingly or unknowingly bringing the tyranny with them as they are accustomed to this way of life. The entire planet is being bombarded with the pains of evolution, and it needs to be viewed as if each country was a family unit that must stick together or the family can do nothing but collapse.  One family’s/country’s collapse can have a domino effect on its neighbors. If there is chaos and calamity in my own home I can assure you that I will not be able to take on the problems that are afflicting my neighbors should they decide to run next door to my house.  Our world is not the same world that could handle a limited amount of migration as it did in the 1800’s.  The population of the world has multiplied by the billions since then and we are seeing resources and capital dry up lightning quick.  Reacting in fear is understandable but it does not fix the problems. 

I realize that most of my words here will not be understood by everyone and they may be construed to mean that I care nothing about the desperate problems of war torn areas.  You could not be more wrong if you assume this.  No problem ever gets solved by fleeing the scene of the crime.  What I am advocating is that people stand still for a moment and ask themselves if there is something that they can do from where they stand that can make a difference in their own environment.  What I am seeing in Europe is that people are pouring into their countries in alarming amounts, and I wonder if the migration of 10,000 people into a country like Greece is solving any problem for anyone.  If that many people can come to the common conclusion that their country is in turmoil, cannot those same 10,000 decide to become a unit of solidarity against it?  Yes, they are up against tyrannical governments and their military, but these 10,000 have the power of a common goal in their favor and is it better to run away from this and face death in the migration in poverty and homelessness?  It is anger and fear that causes us to flee.  We see this in situations as simplified as an overwhelmed parent who abandons their family.  This may seem too simplified to equate with a country that has gone to hell and has turned against its citizens, but I can assure you that the same principle is at work.  If you are facing poverty and tyranny at home you will also find that in today’s world we are suffering from an abandoning of many problems and refusing to take a stand against them.  A commitment to life and home and righting the wrongs in our lives is necessary where ever we may be and what ever situation we might be in.  I cannot tell you that everyone will survive the major upheavals that are taking place everywhere in the world any more than I can tell you that your marriage will stay together or your health will always be good or you will always have enough to sustain yourself, but I can tell you that it is impossible to change your world if you can commit to nothing that life has already put in front of you.  If you respond to everything with fear or arrogance or the coveting of what your neighbor may have you miss the point of what your life has set up for you.  You are where you are for a very good reason and when you find that you can no longer respond with love in any given situation it is imperative that you step toward the middle and take the time to let a higher power show you the best response for not only your needs but also of the needs of those whom you will be turning to for a possible solution.  They may not have one, and without taking the time to contemplate the ripple effect of what you do you can be the author of everyone’s destruction.  

To say that all situations can be solved with a response of love is as wrong as saying that all can be solved with fear and a gun in your hand, or a surety that you can right all wrongs with fanatical bullying of those whom you may see as the problem.  A step to the middle ground where there is no movement until the correct movement for each individual can be found is our only chance now.  Once we have determined what is correct we will be able to connect with others who have possibly found the same conclusion.  Together as a unit there is true power and a force that is based in a higher intelligence which we can maintain in the numbers that are strong enough to either change with what evolves or promote a change that can turn the tide and save us.  We are not put here with nothing to help us make the world the best it can possibly be, but we are incapable of doing it without the connection to the source of higher wisdom.  We have made too much of a mess in the world to easily correct the problems that ego and fear have brought about.  I cannot speak in blanket terms to everyone in the world.  I can only speak to you, while you are here reading this blog. If you have been responding to your world with love and are finding that no one gives a damn that you care, or if you are responding in fear and are causing more chaos, you can go to the center from either point and know where you truly need to be. Either side can be out of balance, but there is a place in the center where you can know the right amount of what you are that can make a focused point out of what is now drowning in pointlessness.

 

Half a Century Later, Back to Square One

If you pay much attention to the news now, you may see a disturbing phenomenon occurring here in the U.S.  You might not be old enough to have witnessed the struggles that took place in the 1960’s regarding civil rights, women’s rights, and the many other human rights issues that were fought for in that decade,  but those who witnessed the time are cringing now at how those  freedoms that were a right and a given not long ago are being taken away from us one by one and in such subtle ways that many of us were unaware of their even being in jeopardy until now.

I could write an essay of novel length here about what we have lost and are in grave danger of losing still, but I will instead talk about why we are losing our human rights and what we, as individuals, need to do to turn the tide back again. 

When we trade in our humanity for electronic vanity we slowly, but certainly surely begin to forget that we are a collective of humans on a planet of finite resources and shared responsibilities.  The very nature of finding ourselves with a gadget that virtually connects us to anyone in the world that we choose is an illusion of power and autonomy that tricks us in to believing that we have friends and powers far above the true human condition.  It tricks us in to believing that we can be loved, listened to, adored, and that we are capable of making a noise in this world that others are going to notice.  There might even be a few of them who will pay lip service to what we want to happen.  Nikola Tesla predicted the amazing future that is now our present as far back as 1926, but his vision did not include the masses using this power to destroy each other. The power to control the universe is seemingly in our fingers. These attacks on whomever we feel like victimizing from the safety of our smartphones have quadrupled in the past decade and are growing more and more vicious by the day.  Even if we rarely get up off our asses we are being heard and seen and we can spew out venom any time we want to.  Who will stop us?  No discipline is required of us. We owe nothing to anyone. The problem with this warped sense of reality is that while we sit at our power center from the comfort of our homes, the people who actually get things done have been busy changing forever what we can and cannot do.  If and when we ever do realize that we aren’t free anymore it is sadly too late to bring back what we have lost while preoccupied with our own cleverness.

The problems are too large and too many to easily change now.  We have already turned over the real power to people who only serve their own purposes.  Those who represent us, with few exceptions, have been bought and paid for by the few who have all of the monetary power.  We have proven to these people that we don’t care what they do as long as we are comfortable at home and have plenty of people to talk to and talk about. We may do plenty of yelling and screaming about how unfair things are but that is usually the extent of our indignity.  Too many of us are still feeling very cushy in our little world.  Freedoms are being taken away from women and people of color or modest means in ways that defy laws and defy reason and affect us all.  It doesn’t seem to have hit the right people in the gut yet for anything to really get done regarding all that we are losing.  I’m sorry to say that the only way we will wake up and treat this issue with the seriousness that it deserves is if white American males become more uncomfortable.  Too bad that few of them have any comprehension regarding the fact that they shoot themselves in the ass if they allow and participate in this subjugation and force control on those who are not privy to their exalted circumstance. Most every citizen is feeling the pinch of this in some way,  They may speak up about it and yell a bit but talk isn’t going to make much of a difference.

 I have always marveled at the depictions of Jesus that I have seen all of my life.  He is always shown as a white man with medium brown hair.  As he was born in the Middle East  it is an absurdity to think that he would look anything like that.  He probably looked more like Osama Bin Laden than Cesare Borgia, whom the standard likeness of Jesus is said to be patterned after by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 15th century. It is also very strange that the area of the world that Christianity sprang from has precious few believers and followers in that region today. Misinformation and confusion abound in the world’s religions because icons have been designed in the image of those who stand to gain the most by the illusion of a deity that resembles them.  Truths have  been altered and changed from what they were in the beginning.   This is why it is so important that everyone has a personal knowledge and experience of what our creator is and was meant to mean in our lives.  We cannot trust any truth beyond what we can perceive ourselves when we come to the realization of what we are in actual truth.   

It might be much easier for us to navigate our world and our personal experience in life if things worked like they did in the Nordic legend of Thor. If  the use of electronic communication could be denied to anyone who is unworthy of its power, then only those with the ability to handle it without corrupting it’s use could use it.  Then it could never be used by those who seek to destroy others, demean them, steal from them and make a world so unjust and corrupted that people are driven to undeserved shame and suicide. The only true way to stop the misuse is through finding the truth of who we really are within ourselves. Only the journey back to the past and our original self can accomplish that.  It is unlikely that every human on the planet will achieve enlightenment and their true identity in this mass of chaos and confusion.  Some are incapable, but most are just unwilling.  For those of us who do understand that we have a responsibility toward others and that we are the shepherds of the planet, it is within us from birth to recognize that, if we take the time to look.  In the absence of a worldwide consensus that all parents, schools and religious organizations will teach us from the cradle on to become what we came here to be, we have to consciously recognize, as individuals, that we are the only hope.   We are losing the opportunity for a better world at the speed of the internet and bringing humanity back to its original self is the only solution.  If you can’t find it within yourself to stop whatever contribution or part that you are playing in this downward spiral you cannot expect to ever see the world do any better than it is at this moment.  Our problems are severe and far reaching.  They are beyond talk now.  Only action and example can turn it around.  I have often wondered how the people who lived through the Russian revolution and the horrors of Europe during World War II held together during that time.  I can see a correlation between the insanity directed toward the Jews and that which is being directed at women, minorities and the so called lower classes right now.

I began writing this blog a year ago today, and in the time since then I have seen that it has been read by many people, but only a precious few have made any comments or provided any feedback as to what they may be taking away from these essays.  It is my hope that some of you have been able to go back to your past and learn from your birth chart what you came here to do.  I would love to believe that many of you already know your path and destiny.  If that is true, I am pleased that you stopped by here on your journey.  Whether I will continue to write this blog remains to be seen, but it will always be my hope that others are trying to make a difference in our world by taking what they read here and being what they were always meant to be. I hope that you believe that it is still possible to redirect our energies and promote a better life than we are experiencing now.  I am with you on your journey in spirit always.  You are being asked every single day to use your own uniqueness to bring order out of the chaos.  If you can make sense of your own world, know that others can possibly do the same by just seeing your example.

An Open Letter to Greece

Dear People of Greece,

I have been watching your troubles from here in America with interest and empathy for what your citizens are experiencing.  To the casual observer, and most likely to the leaders of the other Eurozone countries, your situation probably looks quite ominous and difficult to solve, but as I look around at the mess that so many countries are finding themselves in now, I believe that your country is in a most unique position to change your entire world with a few innovations that many people would not even think of in a world that revolves around money and the power of those who have managed to acquire large amounts of it.

I recently read that Australia has begun a program in which people are being given the opportunity to rent farms in the outback for $1.00 per week in cash strapped areas where communities are likely to collapse without an influx of people to work the land, repair and refurbish houses, and send their children to schools that are teetering on the brink of closure.  Australians are learning that some things are far more important than money in their country.  I have also read that there are some political figures (usually state and local leaders) here in the U.S. that do their jobs for no pay, as they are financially solvent enough to do the work that they are qualified for and care about without requiring a pay check to do it.  Certainly there aren’t many people like this, but that there are any at all is quite an amazing thing.  Your current situation of not having the funds to pay for pensions and needed services could be an open invitation to your citizens to go back to work and do their jobs as they always have without the exchange of money for doing it.  You have the ability to guarantee that no one will lose their homes or the electricity to sustain them by simply showing up for work every day in exchange for this.  You have farms and industry to keep yourselves solvent by simply guaranteeing these workers that they will not be put out in the street or left to go hungry because their continued work guarantees them that they will have the necessities of life simply because they are contributing to their community.  They will be required to maintain their homes.  They will not be able to keep them if they don’t.  It is all commensurate with giving and taking in everything.  The people of Australia are trusting that these families who are participating in the farming experiment will realize and appreciate what they are being given enough to do their part.  A guarantee of shelter, food and healthcare in Greece can be given to everyone who agrees to go ahead and do their jobs in exchange for these things.  Unless there are severe shortages of food and medical supplies and expertise there in Greece, these things can be maintained when everyone agrees that their country is more important than the dictates of the rest of the European Union. 

I understand that your country manufactures many things that would keep you self-sustaining such as petroleum, textiles, fruits and vegetables, aluminum, and electronics.  If you are capable of recycling, reusing, and re-purposing your current resources then you already have the makings of a self-sustaining country that can logically maintain a cashless society.  Many things are already managed in this fashion, such as social safety-net programs, in many countries. If your utility services and health care are government owned and operated they can be maintained and distributed by willing workers who share in the benefits.  It is only the illusion of being indebted and obligated to the wealthy that keeps the necessary basics of life available to us at higher and higher costs every year.

It all comes down to money – or more specifically, the power that money allows.  Money only exists because we have all agreed that it should.  Cash is just paper.  It has no value other than what we have agreed it has.  Gold is just a shiny metal.  It has no value other than what we have agreed it does.  Jewels are just rocks that look pretty, etc.

These bailout loans that are being discussed with severe austerity measures as their condition for approval can be turned around into programs that provide the basics of life instead of money.  You can also take the money and agree to the measures and then use it to build up your infrastructure so that you can become even more self-sustaining.  The austerity measures won’t matter because they are based upon the spending of money for debt, pensions, and so on.  All of those things only exist within a framework of capitalism.  If you do away with capitalism, you will also be doing away with the austerity!  Use the money to make your country strong again.

From what I can see, Greece is a country rich in resources and natural beauty. Historically, Greece was a strong leader and innovator.  The opportunity now exists (thought it may not seem so) for you to lead by example a way out of the many problems that the entire world faces with regard to the unsustainability of a planet that has forgotten that it is people who make a world, not money.  You need far too much of it now to continue as you have.  Redirect your energies, if you can, toward what your citizens can do if they want to. You have already shown that you have the solidarity to pick up what you have and keep moving.  Debt is a terrible thing but creating more debt is not the answer.  Realizing the power of the people is.  Be proud that you have a prime minister who listens to and respects the desires of his people. This kind of understanding of the people he represents is an uncommon thing in much of the world.  Realize where you are at this moment in time.  It is a place that can be a beginning and not an end.

Sincerely,

Tara MacLaird