HAPPY YEAR ONE OF THE SECOND HALF!

In honor of someone who is celebrating a special birthday today, below are several links to posts by me on the joys of the "Second Half" of life as a human being.

Happy Birthday, MC!

HALF TIME!

DECLINING WITH AGE? NO, WITH TIME!

SEX IN THE SECOND HALF!

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER, BE THE REAPER!

FREAKING OUT ABOUT TURNING FIFTY? HA!

IT'S M'BIRTHDAY!

HERE is a link to some posts I've put up on birthday's over recent years. 

Enjoy! 

FREAKING OUT ABOUT TURNING FIFTY? HA!

This is a response I posted on Louise Crawford's blog, "ONLY THE BLOG KNOWS BROOKLYN" because she's been doing an anxious countown to her fiftieth birthday (2 days from now).

Here's her latest post first, then my response below.

Louise:

Countdown to Fifty: Two Days To Go

With just two days to go...

I feel like screaming: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I liked being 49. Shit, I liked being 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48. The forties were my best decade.

I'll have to practice saying it: I'm f, I'm fi, I'm fif, I'm fift, I'm fifteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Crazy, crazy talk. How can this be?

Now say it a bunch of times fast: Fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty. fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty, fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty.

If you say it enough times it loses all meaning. Just a sound, two syllables, a word.

Meaningless. It's meaningless.

PL:

Okay, Louise, listen up! Fifty is a charm. It's wonderful! It's hot!! I just turned fifty-four 2 days ago, and I want to tell you the truth: I am at the peak of my powers intellectually, creatively and sexually, and my tennis game is the best it's ever been! I am actively engaged in two careers that I love, and I am wildly in-love with the Love Of My Life (LOML?). The chances are greater and greater that you and I are going to live to be one hundred, my dear, and if we tend to our needs for pleasure and love and creative expression, this "Second Half" of life is going to be spectacular.
So, embrace this birthday, with two days to go, and celebrate. And be glad that you won't have to live through that first half again!
PL
http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/

Today's Birthday Quotes for PL

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
Abraham Lincoln

“The old believe everything; the middle aged suspect everything: the young know everything.”
Oscar Wilde

“It takes a long time to grow young.”
Pablo Picasso

HAPPY TRAILS, GRANDPA PETE & DICK!

I've often fondly talked and written about my "Grandpa Pete," a man who in my youth seemed to have the key to the secret knowledge I was looking for... whatever that was. Indeed, Grandpa taught me a lot about patience and doing what you really want to do in life, regardless of what other people might think about it. Of course, even with Grandpa as inspiration, it still took me years of self-work to attain only the modicum of patience I have today, but at least I have reached a place where I am doing what I love to do most of the time in my daily life, without concern for the opinions of others. One out of two ain't bad.

But, as time went on, of course, Grandpa eventually had to be deconstructed. Upon the event of my divorce as a young man in my twenties, I went to seek what I expected to be the sage advice of my wise, old mentor. With baited breath, I hung on Grandpa's patiently delivered words. He said: "Petey, go to the butcher shop, buy a nice piece of meat, and go home and make dinner for your wife."

I was speechless. For a very long time.

Another time, perhaps on the event of his ninetieth birthday, reflecting on Grandpa's nine decades journey through life, I remarked on how amazing it must be for him to have been born at a time when we didn't even have cars or planes and to have lived to see human beings walk on the moon. Again, with a steady and confident delivery, he said: "Petey, you really think they landed on the moon? For all you know, they landed on Long Island."

That time, the silence was even longer, and I realized that I was growing up. Grandpa had his gifts and great qualities, but he also had his limitations. I was on my way to attaining wisdom, and it meant letting go of my mentor.

What inspired me to write about this? Well, this will seem like a stretch, but I just heard some excerpts from Dick Cheney's interview on CNN this morning, and well, the comments were so absurd and backwards-thinking, so pathetically delivered by a man so utterly hollowed out by the years of psychopathy, that it was hard for me to hold onto the revolt I've always felt towards him and the view that he was the ultimate incarnation of evil in our time.

You see, like Grandpa Pete, Dick Cheney's time has come and gone. The course of change and the evolutionary developments in today's world are too overwhelming for Cheney to grasp, as divorcing or landing on the moon were too much for my grandfather to comprehend.

I mean, in addition to saying that the economic meltdown in our country was certainly not the responsibility of the Bush-Cheney administration, and that somehow President Obama was inviting another terrorist attack, here, here is Cheney on Rush Limbaugh this morning:

"Rush is a good friend. I love him. I think he does great work and has for years."

Well, I know what Grandpa Pete would say about that bit of "news." The same thing he always said about any news stories: "Petey, I never believe nothing until I read it in the Italian newspaper."

Okay, then. I get it.

Anyway, I know this. We all get to Heaven, so happy trails, Grandpa and Dick! Oh, and Dick? Take Uncle Rush with you. (That Italian paper would be Il Progresso, by the way.)

HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON!

John Lennon Tribute by sycicWALRUS from the CITY ROCK promotional video: "The Project" - Watch the video HERE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOUNG MAN!

PMG & PL

HAPPY 50TH, PRESIDENT OBAMA! (DON'T FEAR THE REAPER - BE THE REAPER!)

In honor of President Barack Obama's 50th birthday today, I am reposting this FPL blog post that has several links in it to other pieces I've written on the subject of aging.

Remember, life is meant to be a celebration!

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER - BE THE REAPER!

There was a piece in the Huffington Post, entitled, "Over 50? You're at the Height Of Your Powers," by Julia Moulden.

Here's an excerpt:

"Mental decline, for instance, isn't inevitable. Scientists say there's no reason our brains have to degenerate as we age; they're 'plastic' and can grow and develop just as they did when we were younger. Physical decline isn't unavoidable, either. The physical changes we associate with aging, such as loss of strength, speed and agility, are not caused as much by the passing years as by our sedentary lifestyle. Just as we need to continue to use our brains, we need to keep moving our bodies. The truth is that as we age, we actually improve in many ways. Enjoyment of life and happiness rise steadily after 50. We become more emotionally stable. And new capabilities and qualities emerge."

I've written about this subject before, of course. Two pieces from the FPL blog - "DECLINING WITH AGE? NO, WITH TIME!" and "SEX IN THE SECOND HALF!" - are specifically about the illusions and distorted views and beliefs that we have about "aging" that create our reality.

In truth, beginning at birth and ending with death (if we choose to have that kind of ending to physical life), the process of being human is one of continual incarnation.

What I mean by that is that our soul energy, the source of which comes from our Higher Self in any particular lifetime, infuses us gradually and continually throughout our journey as physical beings. In other words, we live at a higher and higher vibratory rate as we mature, more and more filled up with the energy of spirit until, once again, we go back to being pure spirit, as we were before physical incarnation.

Some people have learned or been conditioned to fear this process, and so look upon what is meant to be a glorious evolution as a "deterioration." And as we know, what you believe is what creates your reality. So, for many, what can be an experience of greater vibrancy, potency, wisdom and creativity over time instead becomes a depressing time of loss.

Julia Moulden uses Jack Palance as an example of someone who remained vital well into his elder years, and showed it off at the 1992 Oscars when he did his famous one-handed push-ups on stage, at the age of 73. (Palance won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in "City Slickers.")

Life is meant to get better and better as you grow and progress through it, folks. Don't fear the reaper. Rather, just start reaping!

HAPPY SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY, JOHN!

REVOLUTION

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're all doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right...

JOHN LENNON

STILL MORE ON: BEANS, NAPS, BOOZE, SEX and IKIGAI!

Here we go again! Another in the series...

Emma Morano, the world’s oldest person at 117, died at her home in northern Italy on Saturday afternoon. Morano’s doctor confirmed the news to the Associated Press, saying Morano’s caretaker informed him she had died peacefully while sitting in an armchair at her home in Verbania. Morano was also believed to be the last person alive who was born in the 1800s, with a birthday in November 1899. Morano, who outlived all eight of her siblings, had attributed her long life to a diet of three eggs a day, two of them raw, the BBC reported. She survived two World Wars, more than 90 Italian governments and a tough personal life, with the loss of her only son at six months old and an abusive marriage.

So, why do we do it? What makes it all worthwhile?

In the American remake of the movie "City Of Angels," Nicolas Cage's character, an angel, asks Dennis Franz' character, an angel who incarnated as a human being, why he did it, didn't he miss being able to hear the sunrise over the ocean the way he could in angelic form? Franz says "Yes, I do miss it sometimes, but... I can do this!" as he strips off his clothes and runs naked into the ocean.

So, it's time for a check-in, an update on your "Ikigai,"the Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being,” or as they think of it on Okinawa, “a reason to get up in the morning.” What does it for you? Love, Eros and Sex? Fine food? Music? Painting? Cooking? Playing tennis? Building a house? Watching the final episode of "Mad Men?" (I'm really glad I was here for that!)

Whatever it is that gets you up in the morning, folks, appreciate it. Remind yourself to indulge whatever your greatest pleasures and preferences are. It's why you're here... and there's nowhere else like here!




Below are two previous posts that ran under the heading on FPL:

"MORE ON: 'BEANS, NAPS, BOOZE, SEX and IKIGAI - ARE YOU IN THE BLUE ZONE? (OH, AND PASS THE BACON!)"

Okay, here's the headline: Susannah Mushatt Jones, World's Oldest Person, Eats Bacon Every Day!

Susannah Mushatt Jones turned 116 over the summer and is the oldest person in the world.

So what's her secret? It just might be plenty of bacon. Jones has bacon, eggs and grits for breakfast every morning.

Along with a daily dose of bacon, Jones spends plenty of time snoozing. Her niece, Lois Judge, told The Huffington Post in June that she sleeps about 10 hours a night and also takes regular naps.

And what about Ikigai? "I surround myself with love and positive energy. That’s the key to long life and happiness."

Jones, who was born in Alabama on July 6, 1899, is one of only two known living people who were alive in the 19th century.



[NOTE: Jones is not alone among centenarians in her love for bacon. Pearl Cantrell, who died in 2013 at the age of 105, enjoyed bacon so much that Oscar Meyer sent one of its Wienermobiles to her home to deliver some. Cantrell: "I love bacon. I eat it everyday."]




Here's the earlier post on longevity and Ikigai -

Saw a very interesting interview the other night on Bill Maher with author, Dan Buettner, who wrote the bestseller, “The Blue Zones.” What are the Blue Zones? They are 5 places in the world – from Okinawa, Japan to Loma Linda, California – where people regularly live to 100 years old. (The other 3 Blue Zones are Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, and Nicoya in Costa Rica)

Buettner found that: "Blue Zone centenarians have somehow managed to avoid the chronic diseases – heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes – that kill the majority of people in industrialized countries around the world, and especially, in the United States.” 

Buettner sought to discover what the people in these 5 places had in common.

You ready? Here it is – every population group had beans as a regular part of their diet, took daily naps, had 2 or 3 drinks of alcohol per day, walked a lot (but no gym) and had sex at least twice a week!

Beans, naps, booze and sex!

Oh, and one more thing, perhaps the most important – they all had “ikigai,” along with some kind of spiritual practice. What is ikigai? It is a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being,” or as they think of it on Okinawa, “a reason to get up in the morning.”

"Everyone," according to the Japanese, "has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self."

In a TED Talk, Dan Buettner referenced ikigai as one of the reasons people in the area had such long lives. This ties in with the entire concept of Full Permission Living, of course, and with many posts on FPL, including the recent quote from Lee Carroll channeling "Kryon," that asks the question: "What did you come here for?"

So, folks, find your ikigai. You have one. You do. And the great secret to finding it through your dedicated self-work is this: as much as possible, do what you feel passionate about doing in every moment.

And don't forget the bourbon and beans!

The Importance of Play

These are excerpts from a class I taught on development, in particular on the key role of play. Thought it would be a good reminder with which to start the weekend.

Caplan - We believe the power of play to be extraordinary and supremely serious. Play is a child’s way of life practically from infancy to his eighth year.

The young child plays from early morning until he goes to sleep at night. It is the most natural way for a child to use his capacities, to grow, and to learn many skills. What is it that gives play its exceptional power? Playtime aids growth. An important by-product of play is the feeling of power it gives a child, offering soothing relief from the sense of inadequacy and frustration that many children experience as junior members of a well ordered adult society. In play, the child is free from environmental threats. Play reduces the stress of anticipating success or failure. Play aids learning. The infant lives essentially in a play environment. Little is expected of her except she thrive and learn to amuse herself. By and large, she accomplishes this by responding well to her nurture and choosing her own way to play with the people and objects at hand. The infant selects those activities she can manipulate and control to her own satisfaction. Here is a “self-choice” environment, and her play is voluntary, self-directed, and intensely personal. Therefore it has a high degree of motivation. Because of the self-choice, she builds confidence in her own powers.
No one knows for sure what is the price of stopping young children’s play, of curbing their initiative and spontaneity, of deadening their energy, of blocking their social exploration. We are playing with fire when we skip the years two, three, four, and five, and hurry children into being age six.”
There is a small but knowledgeable group of early childhood educators who would purposely delay academic work until the child’s seventh birthday (the beginning of second grade) because they have found from long experience that children can acquire these “tool” subjects much more efficiently when they have more physical and mental maturity than during their earlier years. And some researchers in the field of play have found that six-year-olds are still actively involved with play and fantasy, and are not prepared to abandon this medium of expression simply because school bells are ringing. Throughout our presentation of the early childhood years, we sometimes go beyond the twenty-fifth to seventy-second months of life because there is no sharp break in the time a child gives up pure play and begins to concentrate on symbols. Moreover, the age at which various achievements can be noted may vary considerably from one child to another.

Play is investigative.
Play encourages deep interest and close attention.
Play is a voluntary activity.
Play offers a child freedom of action.
Play provides an imaginary world even a child can master.
Play provides a base for language building.
Play has unique power for building interpersonal relations.
Play offers opportunities for mastery of the physical self.
Play is a way of learning adult roles.
Play is vitalizing.
Play enables children to learn and polish physical, mental, social, and emotional skills.

Epstein – The work done by the therapist is directed towards bringing the patient from a state of not being able to play into a state of being able to play. Both therapy and meditation, as disciplines, require the gentle coaxing and cajoling of the mind from a contracted state to a momentarily open and playful one.

Lowen – Playfulness actually begins in childhood, but reaches its full development after this phase has passed. The consciousness of play and the feeling of joy are characteristic of the young boy or girl rather than of the child. The boy or girl challenges its personal world in its play. The increasing mastery of motor skills and the games with other children constitute a form of playing that is joyful because it is free and richly rewarding. There is a higher degree of excitement in the play of boys and girls than in that of younger children.

Roberts (“Seth”) - Play is a very important, indeed vital attribute in the development of growth and fulfillment. Children play naturally and so do animals. Creatures play because the activity is joyful and spontaneous and beneficial, because it activates all portions of the organism. Children utilize a remarkable imaginative freedom, so that they can experience alternate events with as much focus, strength and vitality as that which with they experience ordinary life. When a child is playing, its sense of joy or anger or danger is very strongly felt. The child’s body will reflect those conditions that would be elicited as if the so-called “play” events were real.

GOD WHOPPERS!

Here are the top eight God whoppers human beings have made up (from the book, E-SQUARED by Pam Grout):

Whopper #1: God is a him. Even though the progressive churches sometimes refer to God as she, the FP doesn’t really have a gender. We certainly don’t talk about Mrs. Electricity or Mr. Gravity. The more appropriate pronoun would be it. The FP is a force field that runs the universe, the same energy source that grows flowers, forms scabs over skinned knees, and constantly pushes for wholeness. God is more like the force in Star Wars, a presence that dwells within us, a principle by which we live. That’s why Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader have become such a phenomenon. Star Wars is a myth that speaks to us at a deep, gut level. Some part of us knows that “the force” is with us and that we, through our words, thoughts, and deeds, create the world.

Whopper #2: God looks like ZZ Top, makes black check marks after your name, and is basically too busy working on world hunger to care about you. God, if you believe the accepted box, is a little like Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird: this mysterious neighbor constantly peering out the window of his penthouse suite, waiting to catch us doing something “naughty, naughty.” We can’t really see him, but we’ve been properly warned that he’s there. Watching. Judging. Monitoring our every move. If you don’t follow this commandment or if you break that rule, God just might send his angel Secret Service after you to bop you on the head like Little Bunny Foo-Foo. 

Whopper #3: God plays favorites. The FP is a force field that’s equally available to everyone. It’s a natural capacity in all of us, not an exclusive gift bestowed upon a few. In fact, that is the primary lesson Jesus taught. God is within. You are part of God. You can perform miracles. To worship Jesus the way we do is a little like worshipping Benjamin Franklin because he first discovered electricity. Ben Franklin sent that kite up in an electric storm so we could use the principle he demonstrated. He didn’t do it so we’d build temples to him, paint pictures of him, and wear little commemorative keys around our necks. He wanted us to take the principle of electricity and use it—which we do to run radios and computers and air conditioners. Had we stopped with Ben’s discovery the way we did with Jesus’s discovery, we’d all be sitting in the dark. Benjamin Franklin didn’t invent electricity any more than Jesus invented spiritual principles. Lightning and the resulting electricity have always been available. We just didn’t realize it or know how to access it. Galileo didn’t invent gravity when he dropped the wooden ball off the leaning tower of Pisa. He just demonstrated it. Likewise, Jesus demonstrated spiritual principles that he wants us to use and develop. We’ve wasted 2,000 years worshipping this idol of him instead of using the principles he taught us. Look through the Bible and nowhere does Jesus say, “Worship me.” His call to us was “follow me.” There’s a big difference. By making Jesus out to be a hero, we miss the whole point. Jesus wasn’t saying, “I’m cool. Make statues of me; turn my birthday into a huge commercial holiday.” He was saying, “Here, look what is possible. Look what we humans are capable of.” Jesus is our brother, our legacy, the guy we’re supposed to emulate. What Jesus was trying to tell us is that the churches, the religious leaders, and all their blaring rhetoric has drowned out God’s truth. They’ve pulled the wool over our eyes by failing to mention the fact that the FP is not an object of worship, but a very real presence and a principle by which we should live.

Whopper #4: God rewards our suffering and gives brownie points for our sacrifice (better known as “Life sucks and then you die"). Many of us think life is some sort of boot camp for heaven. We believe this short life span is “only a test” for the paradise we’re eventually going to earn. If we hang on and bear it, we’ll someday walk through those pearly gates and be happy. These errors in thinking have been condensed into living facts. Nothing is plainer than the inevitability of sorrows and trials. But what if it isn’t necessary? What if there is no reason to be poor? Or get sick? Or do anything but live an abundant, exciting life? What if these tragic, difficult lives are another rumor made up by the churches and cemented into our consciousness by years and years of conditioning? What I’d like to suggest is that this heaven you’re waiting for is available now. And that you’ve been sold a bill of goods about who you are and what is possible. 

Whopper #5: God is just so demanding. The FP doesn’t judge. It doesn’t punish. It doesn’t think, Well, Sammy C. was a good boy yesterday, helping that little old lady cross the street. I think I’ll answer his prayer about winning the lottery. Those are thoughts Clarence Thomas might think. The FP doesn’t need anything. It requires nothing of us. It makes no demands. It doesn’t like Mother Teresa more than Celine Dion. Only misinformed humans, scrambling desperately to make sense of their world, came up with a God who plays eenie-meenie-minie-mo with our lives, a God who likes and dislikes the same people we do. Our fear has trapped us into a box that plays out our very limited perception. 

Whopper #6: You don’t want to ask too much from God; you certainly wouldn’t want to bug him. As I’ve already pointed out, the FP is not a person; therefore you cannot bug him. The FP is a power, an unseen energetic force. It isn’t finite or limited, so you certainly couldn’t ask too much of it. As the old saying goes, you can take an eyedropper or a bucket to the ocean. The ocean doesn’t care. If anything, we don’t use the FP power nearly enough. This is an all-powerful force we’re talking about here, not some last-minute relief team that comes in to pay the mortgage. The FP is not an adversary that has to be coaxed to the bargaining table. 

Whopper #7: God is just so vague. Au contraire. Once you get rid of the black cloud of rumors and half truths that hide your awareness, you’ll find the unseen force communicates just as clearly as Dr. Phil. Once you rid yourself of the blocks, you’ll be shown exactly what to do and how to do it. Again, we need to condition ourselves to think of God more like we think of electricity. Electricity doesn’t care who plugs in a curling iron. Electricity doesn’t need proof we’re good enough to make toast. 

Whopper #8: God only answers when he’s good and ready. There is never a time when God or “the force” isn’t guiding you. And you do not have to wait for any green lights or “get out of jail free” cards. The big guy is available 24/7 once you’re ready to focus your full attention on it. The FP’s guidance happens (as they say about … well, something else)—through a song lyric on the radio, by a phone call from a long-lost friend. The trick is to pay attention, trust, and as I will continue to repeat, focus your full attention on it. And while we’re on the topic of God’s will, let’s get this out on the table. There is no place in our updated picture of God for a hell of everlasting torment or for a sadist who would or could attempt to put you there. Nor is there any room for the idea that sickness or deformity or death or poverty or limitation of any kind is the will of God. The will of God, for those who insist on using that term, is the ceaseless longing of the spirit in you to become all you’re capable of being. Amen.

For MLK!

This is an excerpt from a post of mine from 12 years ago, posted during the presidential campaign that led to the election of Barack Obama. I am reposting it today to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his birthday this year:

Lately, I am struck by how much hatred has begun to infuse our public discourse around the presidential campaign, and in particular, how much hatred is being directed at the least hateful candidate, Barack Obama. Spewing so much less vitriol than either Hillary Clinton or John McCain, Obama is spreading a message of unity and hope, and yet to watch the two other candidates and the far right pundits and talking heads, you'd think he was the devil incarnate.

Why do they fear him, and therefore hate him, so much? Is there something so insidious about Mr. Obama that I am somehow missing, even after thirty years of studying the nature of human beings as a psychotherapist and sociologist? Is Barack Obama really the Antichrist? Or could it be that perhaps those individuals who hate him have become so fearful of facing how separated they've become from their own best potential, so unable to inspire anything but negativity, anger and despair in others, and so removed from their genuine capacity to love, except abstractly of course, like loving the flag or the cross or the "troops," that they must seek to denigrate and destroy anyone who puts forth a message that is positive and loving?

We've been here before haven't we? Martin Luther King, the Kennedy's, Ghandi, and of course, Jesus himself, all messengers of hope and unity, all brutally murdered for delivering that message.

King himself once said this: "Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."

I can't predict what will happen in the public square as this election year progresses. As a species, the human race seems to barely be in its adolescence developmentally, and we know how that goes so often.

Maybe these more optimistic words by MLK can offer us some solace:

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."

PEACE AND LOVE FOR RINGO TODAY!

Ringo Starr is asking fans to say the words “Peace and love” at noon, EST, on the occasion of his 70th birthday today!

Hey, why not?!

GROWN-UP POLITICIANS AN OXYMORON!

I posted this in response to a July 4th blog piece by journalist, Lauren Ashburn, on the Huffington Post. Lauren was wishing for grown-up politicians as an Independence Day birthday present.

Here's what I had to say to that:

At this point in our collective history, Lauren, "grown-up politician" has become an oxymoron. There are two ways that power can be used: power over or power for. A politician in our era seeks to exert power over others for personal gain; a true leader wields power for the benefit of the many. A politician manipulates by deception; a leader demonstrates by example. A modern politician's moral compass is rooted in his or her narcissism; a leader's guiding principle is found in the Declaration of Independence, which we celebrated yesterday, in that now quaint notion that leaders are bestowed their "just powers from the consent of the governed."

Grown-up politicians? A nice thought, but...

GOD WHOPPERS 2, 3 & 4!

Okay. Here are Whoppers 2, 3 & 4 of the "Top eight whoppers we’ve made up about God," from the book, "E-SQUARED," by Pam Grout:

Whopper #2: "God looks like ZZ Top, makes black check marks after your name, and is basically too busy working on world hunger to care about you." 

"God, if you believe the accepted box, is a little like Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird: this mysterious neighbor constantly peering out the window of his penthouse suite, waiting to catch us doing something 'naughty, naughty.' We can’t really see him, but we’ve been properly warned that he’s there. Watching. Judging. Monitoring our every move. If you don’t follow this commandment or if you break that rule, God just might send his angel Secret Service after you to bop you on the head like Little Bunny Foo-Foo." 

Whopper #3: "God plays favorites." 

"The Field of Infinite Potentials is a force field that’s equally available to everyone. It’s a natural capacity in all of us, not an exclusive gift bestowed upon a few. In fact, that is the primary lesson Jesus taught. God is within. You are part of God. You can perform miracles. To worship Jesus the way we do is a little like worshipping Benjamin Franklin because he first discovered electricity. 

"Ben Franklin sent that kite up in an electric storm so we could use the principle he demonstrated. He didn’t do it so we’d build temples to him, paint pictures of him, and wear little commemorative keys around our necks. He wanted us to take the principle of electricity and use it—which we do to run radios and computers and air conditioners. Had we stopped with Ben’s discovery the way we did with Jesus’s discovery, we’d all be sitting in the dark. Benjamin Franklin didn’t invent electricity any more than Jesus invented spiritual principles. Lightning and the resulting electricity have always been available. We just didn’t realize it or know how to access it. Galileo didn’t invent gravity when he dropped the wooden ball off the leaning tower of Pisa. He just demonstrated it. Likewise, Jesus demonstrated spiritual principles that he wants us to use and develop. 

"We’ve wasted 2,000 years worshipping this idol of him instead of using the principles he taught us. Look through the Bible and nowhere does Jesus say, 'Worship me.' His call to us was 'follow me.' There’s a big difference. By making Jesus out to be a hero, we miss the whole point. Jesus wasn’t saying, 'I’m cool. Make statues of me; turn my birthday into a huge commercial holiday.' He was saying, 'Here, look what is possible. Look what we humans are capable of.' Jesus is our brother, our legacy, the guy we’re supposed to emulate. What Jesus was trying to tell us is that the churches, the religious leaders, and all their blaring rhetoric has drowned out God’s truth. They’ve pulled the wool over our eyes by failing to mention the fact that the FP is not an object of worship, but a very real presence and a principle by which we should live."

Whopper #4: "God rewards our suffering and gives brownie points for our sacrifice (better known as 'Life sucks and then you die')." 

"Many of us think life is some sort of boot camp for heaven. We believe this short life span is “only a test” for the paradise we’re eventually going to earn. If we hang on and bear it, we’ll someday walk through those pearly gates and be happy. These errors in thinking have been condensed into living facts. Nothing is plainer than the inevitability of sorrows and trials. But what if it isn’t necessary? What if there is no reason to be poor? Or get sick? Or do anything but live an abundant, exciting life? What if these tragic, difficult lives are another rumor made up by the churches and cemented into our consciousness by years and years of conditioning? 

"What I’d like to suggest is that this heaven you’re waiting for is available now. And that you’ve been sold a bill of goods about who you are and what is possible."

"JUJUTOMB" IS TALKING BASEBALL! PL TALKS BACK?!

Here's Jujutomb on PL's post "WHY I STILL LOVE BASEBALL!":

Good post but I disagree when you say you don't have to be in good physical shape. Granted some pitchers are overweight (although not as overweight as a LOT of football players IMO) they nonetheless posses physical gifts and talents that people like you and me dont have. As Tim Kurkjian, a long time baseball expert puts it: "The idea here is to acknowledge the degree of difficulty of baseball. It is golf, with similar skill and concentration, but with tremendous athleticism – running, jumping, throwing, sliding, colliding, etc. – and with significant fear involved. The danger of the game is what separates baseball from golf. Ask NFL players; they want no part of that little white pearl buzzing 100 miles per hour toward the batter's body, which is usually unprotected except for a helmet with an ear flap."
Please, dont classify baseball as a leisurly stroll...fascinating, yes, complex, yes and physically demanding. We love it because it is statistical but also athletic and skillful.

Here's PL:

Okay, Jujutomb - I stand corrected. Perhaps I was trying to take some solace in the idea of excelling at a sport without having a six-pack under my shirt, but anyway, here's an interesting true tale from my adventures in athleticism -

I used to play tennis with a guy who was ten years younger than me and a tri-athlete to boot! Needless to say, I never won a match against him... except once, about five years ago or so, right around the time of my fiftieth birthday.

Here's how it happened...

Right at the start of the match, I took a wrong step and sprained my ankle. I should have stopped playing, of course, but it was a beautiful sunny day in Santa Monica (are there any other kind?), and I loved playing tennis so much, I decided to play on. I had to really favor the injured ankle and I just figured, okay, there's no way I can win today, so just relax and have fun.

Well... I beat him! I actually won my first and only match against this guy. Why? Because I had no choice but to relax and not press and just have some fun. This has been a lesson I have learned and passed on over and over to other people, regardless of what the endeavor is that one is engaged in. When we're in "the zone," we're riding a great wave, and it's important to remember that we are the "surfer" on that wave, but we are not the wave itself.

How to arrive to the zone? Just relax and have fun! Like these chubby guys!

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE EGO

The DECLARATION continued...

"That to secure these rights [Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

How utterly amazing are those words, and how beyond amazing is it that those words were used to launch the formation of a country. Government "deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed" for the purpose of securing the "safety and happiness" of the people.

Who wouldn't want to live in a country founded on those principles? Who wouldn't love such a country? In fact, if you look in the dictionary, "patriotism" is defined simply as "love for one's country."

So, what happened? How did patriotism get redefined as blind loyalty to a government, a government that in practice seeks to limit the exercise of our unalienable rights and reduces our safety and happiness?

Well, you see, it's exactly the same process that occurs internally in each individual when the Ego, whose job it is to serve the Self in certain capacities toward the end of securing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, takes over and wants to exist for its own sake.

In early childhood, the Ego was formed by the young human being in order to organize experiences and observations and learn from those experiences in order to determine future actions. The ego, in other words, was meant to be an administrator, not a decision maker. Decision-making was supposed to be left to the Self, while the Ego was "instituted among us," "deriving its just powers from the consent of the Self" in order to "secure our well-being." But when outer life, visa vie our unactualized parents and congested social institutions, slams the child with inconsistencies and cruelty, the forming young Self panics and turns to the Ego for direction, a job it is not really equipped for. This begins the process of over-blowing one's Ego, not unlike the process by which our government became so bloated. After a while, the Ego takes on a life of its own and wants to survive, and as I said, wants to exist for its own sake. The Ego will then actually begin to use tactics to keep the Self in a state of fear and dependence, so the Self will continue to rely on the ever-expanding Ego for protection. I have called this the "Mafia Syndrome," in that the Ego, like the Mafia, forces you to pay it for protection. But protection from who? From it!

In the very truest sense, then, it's reasonable to say that the overblown Ego, just like our current ego-maniacal government administrators, are no different than organized criminals. All of you know this. You know that the taxes you pay, for instance, are not justifiable and used fairly or equitably for the purpose of enhancing your well-being. Your taxes don't bring better schools, or better roads, or cleaner air. Your taxes to a great extent enhance the lives of those who insist that you (not they, by the way) must pay them. In fact, you know that your taxes line the pockets of individuals and corporations who actually invite danger into your lives because you have to stay scared in order for them to stay in control. Everyone knows this. But you pay anyway because you feel terrorized by the "hitmen" of the IRS, who might ruin your lives with their punitive tactics. Just like organized criminals. Just like our Egos.

And let's be very clear: loving your country is not the same as loving your government, and loving your Self is not the same as loving your Ego.

So, what can we do? Well, as I always say, real revolution happens one person at a time, not through politics or "movements." Outer reality, individually and en masse, follows inner reality. As long as we are ruled by our Egos, then life, liberty and happiness will elude us. When we dismantle the constructs of the Ego, the irrational fears and unchallenged beliefs, we will create a different outer reality of true freedom, based on an inner reality of true freedom.

Self-work make the Self work, folks. Then you can calmly and confidently put the ego and the government back in its correct place of securing our safety and happiness. Celebrate your Self on this birthday of the USA.