A WHOOPER SWAN'S DIARY: 06/24/21

THE STORY OF JOHNNY WHOOPER SWAN We go to school trusting our parents. We meet a teacher there who stands up front with a big desk, and a pointer. She or he trains us in an authoritative manner. We attach mentally to a life long need for authority in order to live lives successfully. Right so far? In my case, at the age of 25 I was ready to enter the practice of law where I hoped for success and a happy life finally. Very shortly, very shortly, I became anxious. There was a foreboding. I was made more uncomfortable with each experience. Law work is nothing like what I was told it would be. The system is corrupt. But I still cling to my expectation that career success is necessary to my happiness as a man. Each day my grasp of what the fuck success amounts to after all becomes more clouded, murkier. I hear songs on the airwaves and at concerts which describe my life as the life of a fool. What am I becoming? I want to rip off my business suit to run naked in the street with my hair on fire! But I am too afraid. In strange, weird (weird comes from a word meaning wise), fragmented steps I go about a journey of my own believing myself to be the first man to have failed in such a total way which journey works so as to break up my career, end a marriage, and start an entirely new way of relating with my two children whom I love deeply. Almost magically I meet a woman who is a career counselor who asserts a beautiful message that I am made to be joyful in my work everyday and at all levels. This understanding sets me on a completely new course. It is no longer a world of systems to me but an undivided one of unlimited beauty. It reminds me of a painting. A true masterpiece. I am drawn from within to learn the truth about my identity and nobody else can teach me that. From this point onward I will use thinking capacity for mastering mechanical processes and follow my heart, which includes my whole nature, which includes your whole nature and that of every human being for all the rest. I’ll go by the name Johnny Whooper Swan who does not explain itself to anyone. By my fruits shall I be known. Watch me soar!

Thursday, June 24, 2021

CONSIDER THE TREES

Consider the trees in a forest. Many varieties are there not? Roots intertwined. Branches spreading like arms and fingers toward the skyway….the Sun, the undisputed source of life and energy. So far, we have come to understand that the trees obey patterns that result in a harmony expressed as what we have named a forest. We accept it that these patterns have not been set by each individual tree itself operating individually and sparring with its neighbors for advantages nor by certain leader trees that stand out above the ordinary trees, each leader conceiving of a day when the tribe it leads will prevail over the other tribes of trees and monuments built to honor his memory as a great leader and generations of children made to memorize his name. If we consider the entire make-up of the intelligence back of a forest and call it the brain it is the brain of the entire forest not the brain of any single tree or group of trees considered separately. It is a whole forest we see in operation before us and, by golly, we are so very dependent on that forest to a degree that cannot be overestimated. Our daily lives rest upon their existence. Think about it. Search it out for yourself. When you understand life depends upon the sanctity of a forest ask yourself, “Is that not a world of love?”.

I read a quote from a famous musician who said we can either hate the ultimate power we call life or love it with all we have. It’s up to us. The trees of a forest have chosen the way of love. You have probably already done it but next will want to consider the dependence and interdependence of all the animals of a forest, large and small. Do not overlook the humans who have lived there. And get out your microscopes and examine into the invisible world inside of you and its wonder and love. Not with a motive to control it for your benefit or the benefit of your friends but to go “wow!” See for yourself, without a motive, how life has taken care for me…little ol’ me. Then decide to fully embrace it with all your heart, soul, and mind. In this way, your brain will transform itself.