Okay. So it is true that a person can get hurt in this world, just living. Especially so if that person is behaving recklessly and dumb. But, I want to know why we hurt each other? And ourselves. This is by far the most of it, injuries I mean. Down right vicious play, for what? Money? And wars? For what? Money? Property? If a man who sits at a desk offers to pay you vast amounts of money to beat another guy, a stranger who never did you any harm, senseless will you do it? Why?

Can you not say, No?

Why not?

Is it boredom?

If I am a rock star and somebody who wears a suit tells me he will pay me a lot of money to go on the road of his choice and on a rigorous schedule of his making and play many gigs night after night so I will be likely to resort to heavy doses of drugs just to keep my body going to complete the tour, will I?

Can you not say, No?

Why not?

Is it boredom?

Is it something you are trying to prove? Something you feel you must live up to?

Who would ask it of you?

I realized one day that most of it was to please people I detested and thought detested me. That hurt. My pride. And it was pride drove me to it. What?

So many friendly little guys you like have succumbed to a life of pride. Just makes you sad.

I heard that a fellow was a lonely, ugly teenager who had no friends left home completely unprepared to go into the wilderness more or less to die. Got lucky, I guess, and was found by some friendly Navajos who took him in and healed his wounds and then taught him the ways to live out West. When he grew up he repaid them by selling to the Army their secret hiding places for food and the Army used the information to starve them into surrender. Golly, that's sad.

Can you not say, No?

Why not?

I wonder.

Not needing to force ourselves to be TEAM players at all,

rather we need to be made to sound as notes played in Heaven

and be rediscovered in those chords each moment

as we sing:

Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven

Resisting attempts by others to press me into a 

wad of their thoughts 

and toss me around like a ball 

I find difficult

but it keeps me alert and thereby in touch with

who I am

seems to prepare me to serve others suffering like 

pressurization

and so seems to work on my behalf after all

as a complete nobody

Somebody was the first who said to you, you are responsible.

At first you probably did not understand what such a word meant. I am responsible. What was actually meant by the speaker was: you had better do what I expect of you or you will be sorry. So, the speaker was sure he knew what you are supposed to do and what you are not supposed to do...as if he knew which he does not and neither do you.

Yet, the statement did not go away but is said to us everyday

many times in many ways.

So, I want to suggest to you what it can mean to us. First and foremost, it can mean: if I am responsible I am first responsible to live in reality and not to pretend I am anything I am not truly. With all my heart I want you to know you are not responsible to perform for others like a robot they own. You are free.

Yesterday, a friend told me she was accused of making a mistake at work. She ships things around the world and she shipped something to a wrong address. She was devastated with shame and fearful of losing her position. I listened. Then I remembered we are responsible to live in truth. Truth is, nobody knows whether my friend's error was a bad thing or a good thing and probably never will know. If the error caused the client to actually gain favor from a customer or saved another person's life or kept the package from arriving in time to ruin the client's business or introduced two people who afterward discovered a cure for cancer...can that be said to be bad? You write the story. Go on. Write a story in which by delaying or preventing a shipment in error a great good was done. Show yourself what you do not know, in other words, reality.

Here is my point: he who chooses deliberately to live a life of pretend because he feels pressured to do it by a society which threatens him will ultimately reap the results everyone should expect from deciding to live a life of pretend. That is the real problem we have as humans, not the fact we sometimes mail things to the wrong address. Another way to see it is that nobody was born to please anybody else. By accepting jobs we pretend we can do it and like it and prosper by it. That is stupid. Ain't gonna happen. Ask Abraham.  

I GOT THE BLUES

People, grownups, write and speak to each other in words 

they have been shown that have been given assigned meanings

which are derived by assembling the same words in different patterns

 with punctuation 

marks 

accompanying.

        And people were told that the words are reliably assembled 

up from some factory to make sense. 

And that the use is imperative. 

For what? 

Well, all I can finally tell is that it amounted to a method whereby we 

fell into a small black hole that led us to a wonderland of nonsense. 

And the 

question is: Who Are You?

We were all forced to learn the words and their proper use

tested and graded 

according to our grasp of it 

and 

the world of nonsense hands out gifts 

to foster its secure position of authority 

and keep us in line and striving 

against one another. It worked.


 I got the blues.

For you,

what do you think?

Is it better to to give up one's life

and leave a sacred shell

a cloud of incense

an object of cult

for 3000 years

or better to

live your life

anonymous

and plain?

You can make it hard on yourself or ride the easy way.

He’s comin’ down fo’ ya like some runaway midnight train.

Prob’ly catch ya with yore pants down squattin’ out in the rain

Relieve ya of that shitstorm you call “my brain”

trouble is,

he will always come fo’ ya like some runaway midnight train.

Who are you to hold a grudge when the Lord forgives us all?

Who are you to hold a grudge when the Lord forgives us all?

Years ago I was in the original Whole Earth Provision Company store near the campus. It was my favorite place to shop. I came upon a framed story near the mountain climbing gear that told of an ancient people who lived in a valley surrounded by mountains.  Nobody in the village had ever seen over the top of the mountains to know what is on the other side, so, many stories were invented to tell by the campfires to explain what was on the other side. One such story has evolved over time into what is now called religion. Another story has evolved into what is called science. These hypothetical stories continue to grow false explanations of the unknown regions beyond the valley.

However, one day a brave lad did climb to the top of a peak and looked over.  When he came back he told what he saw and though he still lived in the valley for the remainder of his life he always remembered what lies on the other side. The others failed to understand him. The story concluded that once you have seen the other side you will never forget and will know what is there. I knew the author was really writing about meditation, not mountain climbing. You never have to pretend you do not know what the trees have to say.  You can live by that knowledge at all times in every decision. In truth you can live the meaning of the saying that "You never have to make another decision in your life if you decide to see the other side of the mountain for yourself.” Even though few people do, you can.