An excerpt from the book, Kidnapping For Fun and Profit

Love and only love is the answer to problems arising from
parental abduction and alienation of children. Hatred perpetuates
and exacerbates consequences that already affect everyone sharing
this planet, these “two worlds living together as one.” Love must
be supported by forgiveness , and forgiveness must be offered to
all who repent, all who express genuine remorse for transgressions
of the past and present. The only way to love is with depth; it
cannot be lukewarm in a world in the deep freeze of amorality.
Tepid love within a relationship that conceives children is a large
part of the problem, one of the root causes of hijacked emotions,
a deep sense of worthlessness, readiness to blame those closest to
oneself for self doubt and self-loathing. Understanding that this is
ubiquitous in our amoral society is a beginning for those who
have been herded down this path. Power does not spare a soul; it
is too often an insatiable yearning for nourishment of one’s soul
missed in childhood that drives one to acquire power over others.
Inevitably, this power turns to ruthlessness; sociopaths are
spawned this way. Evidence of alienated children can be seen
everywhere, in faces of children in school, in reports of bullying, in
domestic violence, and in false reports of domestic violence used
as a weapon of aggression against a spouse or former partner. To
love is to reach down into the core of one’s being and to find
something within worth sharing; it is an inexplicable personal
power unknown before one sought it out. It is the power to
forgive, to reach beyond a concept of “a balance of power” that
requires only distance and détente. Love is power that requires no
force, nor can it be forced, just as remorse or repentance cannot
be forced from depths within any person. It is the obligation of
every parent to nourish the soul of one’s child so that he or she
becomes aware of both love and its relationship to one’s moral
conscience, for a moral conscience without love is weak, tepid, and
easily overcome by the machinations of the world.

Proverb: Truth is truth to the end of the reckoning.

living water

We have all seen those pictures of starving children with visible skeletons as eyes stare blankly at cameras capturing a moment in what well might be their last days. We are left not knowing whether those who brought cameras also provided sufficient food and clean water to keep alive all our unfortunate fellow human beings.

In many parts of this world, living water is a matter of live and death.

 This photograph showing a starving Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture won Kevin Carter the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. He committed suicide the same year this picture was taken. 

From the beginning of the television campaign to “save the children” in “the developing world,” in countries such as Ethiopia and Somalia, or Haiti and The Sudan, there has also been a global campaign to gain control of the living waters  that are essential to life for all of us. Living Water:  our mountain streams, our natural springs, rivers, lakes and ponds, even as of late, rainwater … sources of fresh water across the globe are the single most important source of life on Earth.

Corporations have been trying to, and largely succeeding in, gaining control of most sources of living water for many years.  Because of this reality that a few corporations have imposed upon the rest of us restrictions of access to living water the solicitations to “end hunger” are much like raising money for gasoline for vehicles without wheels.

Starvation exists as a result of three basic causes: 1. Depriving people of a plot of land on which to grow food; 2. Depriving people of the essential knowledge and tools to cultivate small plots of land, and  3. Depriving people depriving people of access to living water with which to grow crops and sate thirst.

In general, the second cause is easily negated through cultural history; most cultures have developed or learned basic knowledge of agriculture and passed it down through generations. The same is true of agriculture tools that fit local environs. Then, too, many people are provided barren land on which to live yet their acreage remains barren because the primary resource of water is hoarded by a few. Native Americans living in the American Southwest can attest to this.

I’ve been told that  a human quest for “decadence’ is what drives “progress,” and that this desire for decadence is therefore good because of its utility. In cultures like the former Soviet Union, the argument goes, deprivation of means to be decadent led to systemic failures, thus proving the good of decadent desires for the enrichment of humanity … “the profit motive works.”

I disagree with that argument, and this is why.

Efforts to gain control of all sources of living waters on this planet are an epitome of that same “desire for decadence.” Those who seek such power intend to overcome every limitation for themselves, thus to position themselves “to enjoy whatever decadence one’s heart (or loins) desires.” Many have long ago achieved that status.

Yet, those who live for decadence are empty and unsatisfied. One sated pleasure is immediately replaced with a need for another. Rarely is an alcoholic ever content with his last drink, if ever.

The Gospel of John provides a connection between this quest for decadence of today and the concept of living water. Yeshua had met a Samaritan woman by a well, and said to her of the water from the well: 

    “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, …”

This is the cycle of decadence, or of appetites whether simple or large, such as an appetite for power or pleasure.

Water has been, for millennia, a symbol of the spirit. It is a symbol of life, fittingly, for all life depends upon water. Those starving in barren lands, deprived of clean water, are deprived of life. Those who deprive others of access to water are spiritually dead.

It is also strangely apt that the Samaritan woman at the well represented a “decadent” lifestyle, as she had had a number of men, “husbands,”  in her bed through a passage of time. A great many of us live this way today, passing from one “comfort zone” to another with little thought to spiritual continuity.

Many of us, in the same superficial way, answer pleas for donations of money to causes such as those pertaining to starving children. We write a check or make on online contribution without contemplating the difference between cause and effect. We are quick to provide a bottle of water without a single thought that what is needed is a stream of living water  that will alleviate the perpetual thirst and hunger of many unfortunate people.

John 4.10 records:  Yeshua answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

We are told elsewhere that “those who are the least among you” and “who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,'” are one and the same when it comes to charity. In other words, those starving children are in need of living water  to sustain their lives, just as those who provide that living water  must also partake from the heart.

The human will  has the power to prevail. We can do this on Earth, while we are here. Whatever living water  we provide to villages and isolated rural communities will provide them with “perpetual life” while they exist in body, and an opportunity to contribute to humanity as a whole. Collective human will  is required to overturn the present concentration of Earth’s living waters  under the control of a very few who profit from its control and sale.

When we reach a point of each community supporting itself, there will be no excuse for war and deprivation, its related death and disease.

These are some aspects of living waters  as they apply to humanity today.

And yes, beneath the surface, unseen yet vitally important is the connection between what is written here and the exclusive meaning given to living water  as Yeshua intended. May you never thirst. 

Biographical Disclaimer Part One

      When I was thirteen years young, I was confirmed in a rite of passage in Saint Therese of the Little Flower Catholic Church, Coral Gables, Florida. At that time I took a confirmation name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi. By that moment in time I had already spent countless hours in deep contemplation alone in nature, in the tropical forest of Viscaya, in a place called Simpson Hammock, or walking along the shoreline of Rickenbacker Causeway or perhaps sitting beneath or in the branches of a tree anywhere.

Sometimes I would simply sit in a church listening to the groans of wooden pews, watching sunlight pass through stained glass windows. Others times I would go for long, aimless walks throughout my neighborhood or into adjoining ones, noting differences in houses and surrounding landscape.

When I learned about Saint Francis my reaction was, I get it.  It is fair to say that I sensed an affinity for his teachings and that that understanding influenced my life along the way, perhaps profoundly.

But no, emphatically, No, I cannot claim to have followed his example in most things. During that period of my life I tried to become pious but failed miserably at that. Knowing this, I would never claim to be “holier than thou.” On the contrary, I’ve done my share of sinning and then more.

Yet, there is one influence from St. Francis that stayed with me most of this life: accumulating large stores of money has never been my priority. I admit this. It may well be “a sin” against modern society but at best the pursuit of money for its own sake has been a secondary interest, if it ever did make it to the number two rank. It has not been “my Cup of Tea.” 

Of course, this put me out of step with the large majority of my peers in our global culture. And of course, I’ve lived within certain limits because of this. 

Perhaps I’ve missed out on a lot of “due decadence” during my life up to the present, although I have no regrets about that. 

I’ve had to work as I grew up, beginning at age eleven, as our family of five siblings and one (continuously) working parent of two at home had few nickels to rub together.  

Saint Francis, though, gave me an important gift or perspective on life, that one may retain one’s dignity as a human being, a “Child of God,” while subscribing to poverty, either involuntarily or voluntarily. Francis chose poverty of his own volition, yet no sane person would claim that he lacked personal dignity. By our standards and knowledge of his contemporaries, Francis lived in rags but would not be labeled “White Trash” as some would tag people today. 

At home, conditions were such that some of my siblings and I went to work before becoming a teenager. For me, it was delivering newspapers by bicycle, folding pizza boxes, learning to make pizzas and other goodies by the age of fourteen, and various other things as opportunity came along. It was a school away from school  for me.

While collecting for an afternoon newspaper, The Miami News before it was purchased and shut down by The Miami Herald, I met hundreds of older persons living in a historic district of Miami, just south of the Miami River and on both sides of Miami Avenue. The famous nightclub-bar, Tobacco Road  was in my territory. In visiting many of those customers, I could not help but notice how each coin was carefully scrutinized and counted when making a payment. I knew that many in that area had to do this to live, and to eat every day, and I sensed that many also would skip meals in order save for the end of the week or the end of the month. Time after time, someone would be home when I rang but not answer the door. I made it a point to lose their stub for that week, and often for multiple weeks, and hope for a payment the next time. It’s no exaggeration to say that a third of my earnings were left behind this way, and I continued this practice for about six years with the two newspapers, leaving the day’s propaganda at doorsteps seven days a week. 

Looking back, I have no regrets for leaving thousands of dollars behind me in this way because from so many of those endearing, wonderful, struggling people, some the poorest of subscribers in the city and others among the wealthiest, I learned something about life that’s endured. 

Many of us will age, and reach 70, or 75, or even beyond 85 years. The world will change rapidly and in exceedingly profound ways around us through the energy and activity of younger generations. For one reason or another, I learned before my Confirmation, many of us will arrive at a place alone, living alone, and we will have to be cautious with each expenditure. It is also predicted that many of us will need to work until our last day, if that is possible. For millions of us Baby Boomers economic conditions will not be as good generally  as they were for elderly persons I met in the 1960s. 

I’ve seen  the future that many of us face. The necessity of frugality is nothing to fear, and there is nothing undignified  in thrift, or in poverty. Personal dignity is, as Saint Francis taught, very much a state of mind and a state of being.

 

Thus, it is far worse to find oneself alone, isolated, or friendless  in our declining years, unless that is a personal choice for solitude. This can and will happen to some of us, especially those who define self-worth in terms of material things, then find that there is little of that left during waning years of one’s life, or at any time.

Now, we are at point in history that can best be described as an upheaval. The significance of current changes that are happening in political, social and economic venues all point to this, although for many the collective crux may be imperceptible or elusive to define. Nevertheless the upheaval is happening all around us. Because of this, I cannot stress enough the importance of reaffirming and strengthening any bonds you may have with others. Whenever possible, set aside differences that may split apart families and friendships in your life, and learn to follow the Boy Scout Motto: "Be prepared."  (Also, read my post “Give Forgiveness.”)     

 

Placebo Politics 2012 an Introduction

Many martyrs gave their lives on behalf of freedom in the Twentieth Century. Before 1960 millions of innocents were killed in massive purges of small farmers from lands in Asia and Eastern Europe. Then World War Two swept across the same lands, taking more than sixty million more lives around the globe. Since 1960 up to the present, in other purges in the Middle East, in Asia, in Mexico and throughout Africa, tens of millions more human beings have been slaughtered by those who control natural and man-made resources. The wholesale killing that began in 1914 has continued unabated since the outbreak of the First World War, yet “life goes on” as if this were not the case.

We have been distracted from necessary reflection on this and what it means, how it shapes our everyday lives.

We have been lulled to sleep and hypnotized, literally, by television and its offshoots in the high-tech revolution.

Civilization itself kills millions of people each year, at a faster rate than weapons unleashed in the last world war.

The distribution system of land and resources alone is responsible for the deaths of approximately thirty thousand children every day  from starvation, foul water and related diseases. It is definitely not the case that this world is overpopulated and that this sad circumstance cannot be avoided as long as the poorest people on Earth continue to procreate.

The concept of overpopulation is a placebo. It is an empty, meaningless pill fed to those who inquire into the state of the world. It is a placebo, for some, intended to alleviate any sense of guilt for having amassed far more than they need of Earth’s resources in order to live and prosper, or for indulging in the haute cuisine of indifference. 

And it does just that.

It is also a useful placebo used to justify the murder of innocent fetuses, as a measure against an already, so it is claimed, overpopulated world. If it were true that Earth’s resources are insufficient to maintain all seven billion humans in a civilized society, then it might be partially true that abortion is acceptable. But the premise is quite wrong, and those who control an extremely high percentage of our resources know this.

The same group of controllers disseminates a vast array of misinformation through mass media. To a great extent, this small group of controllers is responsible for creating much of the matrix of informational placebos that divide families, communities, states, nations and peoples in what has recently been touted as Class Warfare.

By now most of the world knows of the recent attempt to generate new political placebos through the Occupy Wall Street movement and its clones around the world. In some ways, as will be seen true of most placebo politics, there is a sound basis for the Occupy Movement. There is a good reason to demonstrate and demand reforms of the system that Wall Street represents. However, not one of the agenda items publicized for that movement “hit the nail on the head” by citing the critical key  that would bring about the changes that the Occupy Movement allegedly targeted.

        From this I’ve had to conclude that Occupy Wall Street is yet another informational placebo of the political world. Like any placebo, it has a purpose in deception. Placebos are created to deceive the mind. A common definition …

	Placebo: Something of no intrinsic remedial value that is used to appease or reassure another.

 

Anyone who pays attention to broadcasts of debates, or commentary afterward, or generated “news” of the activities of government through major networks or minor players in the blog scene, upon reflection, will discern that substance is absent. Choosing any favorite topic from the wide gamut of possible subjects, I wonder if anyone can emphatically and assuredly state that that particular subject has improved through handling by government officials or their political achievements?

It is doubtful, and this is not because one side might argue that, for example, the latest government report on statistics for unemployment decreased from 9.5% to 8.7%, or at least, it was reported as such. The number might appease a few, and reassure a few more who intend to vote for the incumbent president regardless of the overbearing reality of administration failures. Numbers such as unemployment figures are exceedingly effective placebos whether they are used to boost ratings of one politico or to manipulate minds to go in another direction, to lose confidence and increase general fear.

The same principle applies to discussions of illegal immigration. Numbers are thrown about for our general consumption because it has become blatantly obvious that there is a problem and its solution has been evasive for decades.

To understand placebo politics is to understand why not one of the issues of grave concern to you, me and everyone who casts a vote in a democratic election will have a satisfactory resolution through this process of empowering other people to do what is right and just. Every election at the national level and a very high percentage at state and local levels have become an informational placebo.

The purpose of every election is to appease and reassure concerned citizens (and non-citizens who share a stake in an outcome) that what we all sense deep down a the gut level, and through considerable education for some, is not going to be true this time, all over again ... that no matter who is elected or empowered we all lose.  

It is my hope that those who read this book will gain sufficient knowledge and understanding of the forces that dominate our world so that each is empowered to change what can be changed within the boundaries of your lives, and to better comprehend the lives of other people who are distant in space, culture or custom.      

Amoral Morale

Setting aside a matter of religious wars, some believe that the United States is divided by the Left —liberal, “freethinking” or “progressive” -– faction on one side and a self-proclaimed “conservative,” sometimes hard-core Christian group on the Right.

      There are many contradictions within the Right, and many within expectations of the Left.

This is largely due to the fact that there is no true far right, there may be a very small far left, and there is no true culture war.

Primarily, when all small groups that make up the far right are examined by what they believe, they are found to espouse many tenets that moderates also believe. No one fully practices what they proclaim to believe except for a very few; these live in Orthodox communities that can be named and numbered: Orthodox Jews, Amish, Mennonites, and some Catholics who attend Mass in Latin or live in monasteries are a few such groups.

The latter, the monks or sisters in convents, also struggle with petty differences as if they were family members; they experience divisions, wrestle with faith and piety, develop attachments and jealousies, as do any other members of society. Yet their lifestyle as a whole conforms to their proclaimed beliefs and they ought to be recognized for this.

When it comes to the majority of people in groups unfortunately lumped into “red states and blue states,” the Right become as liberal as people or their behaviors they condemn and the Left become as conservative as people that they habitually ridicule.

       It is no coincidence that people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh resemble, in the way they speak – ranting and raving – people on drugs, whether those pharmaceuticals are licit or illicit.

There are people whose main means of income is to perpetuate the myth that the United States is engaged in a series of culture wars that preclude unity on any major issue.

To hold this view is to say that we have entered into a long, possibly endless period of civil war here in this country. Like hot wars in the Middle East and around the globe, this is a perpetual war, a perpetual struggle for power of one side over the other.

In 1973 we began a civil “cultural” war over abortion: choice versus the right to life. This has not been a bloodless, civil war.

Beginning with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, we began a civil war of environment versus corporate power, or jobs versus owls and snails, that evolved into global air-conditioning via chemical-trails emitted from high-altitude jets, otherwise known as "saving the earth by poisoning it with a blanket of nano-aluminum and barium." 

Beginning with Jerry Falwell’s plunge into politics, we began a civil war on the issue of Fundamental Christian influence in elections, although not over government action.  

The election of “independent thinkers” aligned with gay-rights groups then began yet another civil war against organized religion.

In this rush to divide our loyalties, each of these civil wars has served hidden agendas of those in power who do not want you to perceive or to grasp the single most important issue we face this year and during the immediate future.

On both sides there has been no shortage of donors willing to spend billions of dollars to keep voices loud and clear on all divisive issues of recent decades.

The greater the potential for divisiveness, the more money pours in.

There is no limit to the money when it comes to funding the culture war myth. 

Nor has there been a dearth of willing tools, or fools, ready to accept handouts from the “concerned citizens” who want voices raised higher and higher “until something is done” about these things.

 Religiosity itself has become a divisive issue. Some on the Left claim that this has no place in our culture "because all organized religion is guilty" of suppressing people and individual rights; many believe the enormous lie that “organized religion is the root cause of all wars in history.” 

Attacks of some from the left are stated so dogmatically that one might assume that defiant individuality is sacrosanct, being gay makes one holy and infallible, and the only problems in the world – anywhere – are caused by organized religions, especially Christianity.

People today apologize for being religious; as if to say, “oh no, I didn’t mean that, actually I’m spiritual but not religious.”

The loud clamor in our public arena is meant to confuse people so that one will distance one’s self from religiosity and acquiesce to interchangeable, socially acceptable possibilities.

Differences that distinguish one set of religious or moral beliefs from another are not the most important issue we face, and do not justify bloody war.

 

 Nor is it essential for one to have firm beliefs in or practice religiosity. Development and use of one’s individual moral conscience is not a matter of believers versus atheists, agnostics and skeptics. Those who self-proclaim to be engaged in a civil war, or “culture war,” of Believers versus The Godless miss the point.  

 These are important matters. The fact that there is a widely held false belief that the Founding Fathers of this country intended there be separation of church and state in the United States does not elevate this misconception to the primacy of truth.

Moral Consciousness is the single most important issue of this age, yet our public forum states the opposite is a predominant moral matter, that of freedom from moral constraints. [Or, in  language commonly used, although bizarrely and esoterically sexual ... "don't try to cram religion down our throats."]

 While it is important to some that a contest continues between practitioners of a creed and those opposed to practicing a creed or tenets of religion, this antagonism is but a useful distraction from the issue that, once fully understood by sufficient numbers, threatens to unite rather than divide the population.

 To clarify, The People of these United States are “the State.” We are the body of each government, local, state and federal. We serve ourselves through functions of government and governing agencies.

Essentially, we govern ourselves.

To assert that the founders of this country intended that We People, comprising the State,  be completely separated from any and all open practices of religion is the literal meaning of an absolute separation of church and state. This falsehood has been repeated so many times that it seems axiomatic to many. It is to say that the Founding Fathers, including many religious persons among them, intended for this country to abolish the practice of religion.

This is the only meaning of a separation of Church and State in a nation of people who are, individually and collectively, the State.

To profess this as true is as absurd as to profess that one’s thoughts reside somewhere other than within one’s mind, excluding exportation to a recording device, paper, etc.

This is like replacing one’s blood with salt water and calling the change "life improvement."

The absurdity of a cultural, civil war being waged over the issue of separation of Church and State cannot be overstated. It is a contributing factor in a long process by which we have reached this point of emergency, however. 

 It is largely through this amoral morale that we have been led to believe wholeheartedly in culture wars as inevitable foundations of our civilization, as if splitting a foundation stone strengthens a building.  The belief in these differences as inevitable has led us to the point at which we are now.

Every one of these (and there are others) perpetual civil wars that we have been told to believe in have precluded our focus on the single great issue of our day: we cannot govern ourselves without a strong moral awareness and foundation built within  our laws and applicable to all. 

The Gift -- from The Battlefield of Joy

This is a poem from the collection The Battlefield of Joy.

There is a central theme to the collection, and it is not about war and “strawberry cactus” blooming.

Some would use words such as sensual, beautiful, warm, or profound to describe the poems… perhaps even sublime.

Yet, each reader has her or his own sense of what they mean or invoke.

Again, I prefer simplicity to convey deeper meanings…  

The Gift

The Sufi master would say:

Fear God, for he is that big man chasing you with a stick while you run away crying… 

Crying out to God:

send me someone who will show me love!

   

While the big man with the stick chasing you answers:

     With this stick I will trip you so you fall down in the dust, then, on your ass… 

II

We think we know better, calling out for aid while running full speed from His messengers and love.

The fleer is afraid the man with the stick seeks to take something away, or cause pain.

So caught up in fear, she couldn’t stop to ask why he was chasing her or who might he be.

The man with the stick saw the fright of the woman in flight

and heard her pleas to take her fear away.

  

He knew, too, her fear was as great as he had known before,

so he chased her relentlessly to offer his gift.

When the big man reached the frightened woman he tripped her with his staff; she went flying to the dust.

     Oh, my greatest fear has come upon me! 

She cried: I’ve been caught and knocked down!

When the big man reached her where she sat in the dust

he offered his hand to her.

She looked into his eyes and saw compassion; but more,

a mirror in which she saw herself.

She saw the possessive fear upon her face and knew for

the first time:

          This is the fear of being loved!

Truly, it was a fear of what she had often cried out to God to provide: to know love.

Seeing into the mirror of her enduring emptiness, she understood why the strong man had chased her so enthusiastically.

Because her fear had been as great he had known

it was special for him to strive toward and trip this woman who ran from love faster than anyone he had seen,

to offer his hand to her, to show her that those whom we fear most may be sent to become our friends.

In a moment of clarity she understood:

She had given the man greater meaning by crossing his path;

the longer she set aside her fear of love the greater gift she was to the man with the big staff.

     She took his hand in her own.    

God sometimes acts the Trickster

when given no choice.

~  ~  ~  ~ 

The Battlefiled of Joy can be found here ...