The Disrespecting of Donald Trump

I have always been taught that respect is earned. It is earned mutually through the process of building trust, offering compassion, and understanding the views of others – especially if those others are in a position of subordination.

That said, I believe a dangerous precedent is being established which is undermining the structure of the United States of America and, due to our ranking in the political realm, the world. In my opinion, Donald Trump has not met the criteria for earned mutual respect.

I have watched Donald Trump’s displays throughout his campaign and his Presidency thus far. I have yet to witness a sincere act of respect for any person or thing. I believe he completely lacks the ability to feel true respect for anyone, let alone those who offer a different opinion. However, he fully expects and demands that every living being on earth (possibly beyond) show him the respect he believes he is entitled to.

Americans believe that our forefathers were men of honor, respect, and dignity. We have been taught that the office of the president is one which shares those same qualities. Let me ask you this, have you ever been witness to a boss who yells at and belittles his employees in front of everyone? My guess is that you probably have, because people like that exist. Did you find yourself thinking, “Wow! What a jerk!” My guess, again, is that you did. So, this is why I don’t understand how the good people of this country, people I have come to respect, can be alright with Trump’s actions. The way I see it he is belittling anyone who feels or thinks differently and is doing it very publicly and well…”Wow! What a jerk!”

Do you see? I may have varied opinions on the policies of this administration. I may choose to speak my mind against some of them or I may even choose to support a particular stance, but that is irrelevant. My issue here is that I cannot, in good conscience, support any person that I do not respect. I wouldn’t respect the boss who is belittling his employees in public any more than I can respect the President who belittles the very people he is responsible for. Without that respect I cannot trust him. I cannot feel a great deal of compassion for him. I cannot believe that he has the ability to understand the issues of those dependent on him, or that he even truly cares about them.

I feel that Donald Trump’s disrespect for our system of government is obvious. He believes he is entitled to do what he wants when he wants. When he is questioned via the legitimate processes of balances and checks established by our forefathers, he offers public condemnation and mockery to those opposing him. It upsets me that there are people in this world who are alright with this behavior. Personally, I think it’s bad enough coming from any one person but coming from the President of the United States, well…it’s downright shameful. How can I be expected to give a man a “chance” when he clearly disrespects me? How can you?

The Defining Point

No Pictures Today - Just a Simple Message

In the long dark corridors of the mind it is easy to get turned around; to lose track of a thought and travel down a distant road of logic that seems to be going in the correct direction. What some don’t realize is how easy it is to find your way back onto the proper path. It’s a word, one word, that you need to consider, you all know the word but you may not think of it the way I do so here’s my definition…

LOVE: Opening to the calming and serene feeling of others. Accepting the peace from within all living things as your own.

When my thoughts take me anywhere that causes me to lose touch with this definition I know I need to find my way back to the correct path. I need to re-examine my thinking; understanding that as a human being my thoughts are driven by emotion no matter how logical I think I am. Every thought within my brain, my body, is directed by an emotional response. Love is an emotion; we all know this. Hate, fear, anger are emotions as well, and they can be tricky. They can disguise themselves as love but only on the surface. The true test of love is inner peace and a peace that connects us to one another.

You can test yourself anytime, it’s very simple. Whatever you are doing, thinking, living at the moment, stop, ask yourself honestly, does this thought or action create a feeling of true peace inside me? If the answer is no, then it is not driven by love. If what you feel is stress or anger, then it’s time to find your way back to the true path. I can’t tell you how to traverse the logic and emotions of your own mind but I can give you the compass. Love is North. When you rethink the situation that made you so angry or so stressed out, turn around, look back at the train of thought that brought you to that point. Often the mere act of stopping and asking yourself, how did I get so angry, will allow you to open up to the love that is there and you will find your way back.

There are those of us, though, who have become so lost, so consumed by what they think is love that the truth of inner peace has been replaced by a morally driven combative purpose. An all-out war against their perceived evils and fears consume their minds. A forest of brambles, vines, and treacherous looking trees block them from finding their inner peace, their love…they are the truly lost…and they are helpless to find their own way back. This, my friend, is the reason why my love, your love, our love together is so vital to the survival of this world, so please…take this compass and use it. It falls to us to find our love because it is only in doing so that we can spread it. Our inner peace, when truly found, becomes outer peace. It becomes recognizable to other people, acting as a beacon to the lost. We all know that “beautiful” person, the one who evokes peace, harmony, and compassion just by looking at them. This is a person who is projecting that inward love outwards. This person could be you. This person NEEDS to be you. Without you this world suffers, you are the love that we need.

What Hyena and Elephant Have Taught Me

Picture Credits - Public Domain Pictures

Hyena - Petr Lehnert

Elephant - Piotr Wojtkowski

Many people who know me know that I practice a form of Shamanism. My spiritual instincts have led me to a place in my life where I believe that I am able to learn and grow spiritually through this practice. Even though consciously, I question the state of the multiverse and whether or not a creator, or creators, actually exist I have been taught from a young age that one does. Because of this my subconscious will always rationalize my experiences so that they fall in line, in some way, with what I was taught as a child. As I have grown spiritually over the years, however, I have left organized religion behind. I certainly do not oppose it; I think most people in this world today still need it. I would never intentionally mock it even though I feel that it has caused many troubles in the world today. I have also seen it do much good. That said, my path takes me on a different journey than most.

Shamanism is a form of spiritual practice which involves working with animal spirits. There are many layers, planes of existence, within the spiritual world. A Shaman will mentally and spiritually travel to the plane where the animal spirits exist. Once arrived on this plane, a mutual agreement is made and through this lessons, or wisdoms, are taught to the Shaman via the animal spirit guides. I make it a habit to frequent this realm and each week I perform a ritual to strengthen the bond with my animal guides. It is through this song and dance that Hyena and Elephant have shown me a lesson that I feel needs to be shared with the world. That is the reason I am sharing what normally would be a very private matter, with you today.

Animal spirits can be associated with the elements; fire, earth, water, and air, depending on the lesson the animal spirit chooses to relate. However, there are loose guidelines which can categorize the spirit guide. Each element represents a “type” of, or characteristic of, the animal. Fire represents the hunter, strong animals that prey on others such as, Tiger, Alligator, and Hyena. Earth represents the more docile animals such as Deer, Monkey, and Elephant. The water element contains animals of the water, Dolphin, Orca, and Otter. Lastly, the element of air holds within it spirit guides such as, Eagle, Owl, and Crow. During the dance ritual the Shaman embodies an animal spirit from each element. During this embodiment the Shaman talks to the spirit and learns from them, in return the animal spirit can experience the material plane for a short time. Usually, it is mutually satisfying but during one of my recent dances it was not and it was through this dissatisfaction that this lesson was learned.

My physical self suffers with an autoimmune arthritis called Ankylosing Spondylitis. The condition makes it difficult to move normally. This has never been an issue for me while embodying the Fire Spirits, but on this occasion that changed. Hyena presented itself to me and as I took on the embodiment Hyena rejected me saying it did not want a broken body. When I asked why, Hyena said it would not be able to enjoy the kill of its prey fully in a broken body. It wanted to feel the pleasure of tearing its prey apart. I was disturbed by this and gave Hyena its leave. At first I think I may have been a bit offended, but the more troubling issue was knowing that Hyena liked to kill. Hyena wasn’t killing its prey to survive as most of the prey animals do, it was killing for the fun of it. To me, that felt evil and I was upset.

I turned to Earth and Elephant came forward. Here was an animal so different from Hyena. Elephant was a loving mother who would stay with her dying calf, abandoning the safety of the herd, to ensure that the baby died peacefully. Elephant would defend her calf to its last breath and all the while, touching it with her trunk to comfort it. I asked Elephant how can it be that you and Hyena are so very different? Why does Hyena want to kill? Elephant’s reply was simple, “There will always be those who get their pleasure from killing and destruction. It is true throughout the natural world. Humans are a part of the natural order and as such there will always be those who thrive on the pain and destruction of others. While some people may find and except love not all can be saved. This is the truth of the world.”

And so it is. Hyena and Elephant reminded me that not every person can be taught to love. It is a sad fact that some people enjoy being evil. These people, as hard as it is to swallow, will never change. They are Hyena. The rest of us must remain on guard to our last breath with or without our herd. We must look after those whom we love, and share our love with those who will accept it. We must go on teaching our young that family is important and through our love of one another we will find protection and rest from the evils in this world. That is what I needed to share. My thanks to Elephant, and also to Hyena, for reminding me of this valuable lesson.

Is Religion Killing Us?

Image Credit - Paul Brennan - Public Domain Pictures

We see it everyday all around us. Religion with its icons and archetypes are never far from any one of us. Even to a person who claims Atheism, the barrage of religious traditions is perfectly recognizable. It’s easy to claim that the vast majority of people today can identify the symbols which represent the most common religions. The Christian Cross, the Star of David, the Star and Crescent of Islam, even the Pentagram of the Nature Religions has become known to most. Religion has become embedded in today’s society, and on into every individual’s life, whether or not you personally adhere to one. And yet, within the cry of “love your brother” we kill and maim in name of God.

Unless you've been living under a rock, no matter where in the world you are, the actions of ISIS set an example of how horribly twisted the “Word of God” can get. Any average Joe understands the danger and damage possible when fanatics/extremists from any religion are turned loose on society at large. But what about those who are practicing the love that is taught through these religions, surely that can’t be a bad thing can it?

The reason I ask is because I wonder if the world would be better off without religion of any kind. Are the religious using their faith as a crutch? Are human beings being held back from what may be the real truth because they are blinded by their faith? Perhaps there is no God. Maybe people are too afraid, down deep, to deal with issues like death, and extreme poverty and need, so they make up this Godhead to answer the questions they can’t.

I really don’t want to offend anyone, but these are honest questions that I ask myself. I understand that the faith a person holds in their deity can be an absolute. To a person who believes there are no lingering questions as to what happens after death, or why perfectly good people are plagued with the destruction and greed from, what can only be deemed, evil people, God’s will can be a satisfactory answer. Many times when presented with these questions a person of faith will simply reply that if everyone else would finally come to their senses and except their God, the world’s problems would go away. I guess to an extent that’s true. I mean if every human being on the planet shared the exact same dogma and saw God in the exact same way, perhaps the world would be a better place. I, however, am more pragmatic than that and I understand that even if every person shared the same dogma there would still be conflict because one person’s vision of God is never going to fully match another’s. In other words, I think that as long as religion exists people are going to fight about it, and it’s going to end bloody.

So now what? What are we to do in this world where, religion, our own beliefs are killing us? I’m afraid that due to my pragmatism, again, I have to be the bearer of bad news. The possibility of everyone abandoning their faith for the betterment of the world is really just as far fetched as hoping that one day people we will all believe in the same God. So now, for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts on how to come to grips with our religious differences.

I think that humans need an answer to life’s immortal questions. We want to know and understand what will happen to us when we die. Are we really going to be reunited with our loved ones or will we simply fade into the nothingness of dreamless sleep? I can’t answer that. I know I can’t answer that, so why bother my brain with it at all? My loved ones are either out there somewhere waiting for me or they’re not. I’ll find out when I’m dead, or, maybe I won’t.

Why is there so much evil in this world? Because sometimes people suck. There are people in this world who want to squeeze every last drop, of whatever they can get, out of it. If you want to make the world a better place, decide now that you are not going to be one of those people. Does the thought of that make you afraid that you’ll be left behind? Who cares!? Why would you want to be with that crowd anyway? Find your own way, find good people, and work with them to make the world good, and I don’t mean good as in everyone needs to think my way good, but in the way of, truly good. Love people, care about people, help them when you can and don’t take advantage of those who have opened their hearts and souls to you.

I think that there are many good people in the world and that most people really do want to do what’s right. Sometimes things get confusing, people get scared and they may make a bad choice but that’s not the same thing as being “evil”. To the people out there who are truly “evil”, you know who you are, I say; I don’t know what happened in your life to screw you up so bad and there’s nothing that I can do to change your circumstances, so...if you don’t like what you see in the mirror then change. It’s that simple, really. Take it from this recovering alcoholic; the only thing that is going to release your pain is your ability and your desire to let it go. The world is what it is and if we want it to be a better place then we need to make ourselves better. Love and Respect are two very important words to know and practice. It doesn't take religion to understand compassion, and it doesn't take religion to be a good person. If you find that having faith in a God helps you to deal with your deepest fears, then so be it. Just remember that you are unique. Even if you are surrounded by others who share the same dogma, when it comes down to picturing the big picture everyone sees their own artistic interpretation of it, so relax and don’t try shoving your vision down someone else’s throat. If you honestly want the world to be a better place then accept others for who they are and allow them the same respect you would want for yourself.

I know this has been a long post and that after all these words are written and read it really comes down to a simple statement. Live and let live. The world will be a better place because of it.

Hanging on to Hope

Photo Credit - Rostislav Kralik - Public Domain Pictures

Before I get started I would like to apologize for the long wait between this and my last post. I was having some computer issues which prevented me from being able to write. However, that said, it lends me the opportunity to share with you now my perspective on hope. Yes, it’s a strange segue but I think when I’m done you’ll see how it all fits together.

For the most part, in my little piece of the world, my life goes on undisturbed from day to day. I have, at times, had major life issues of course, but on a daily basis my biggest worries are usually things of a more mundane nature. Sometimes I worry about paying the bills, this past week I worried about getting my computer up and running again. What does this have to do with hope you may ask? I’m getting to that.

First, let me tell you what happened when my computer started giving me issues. You may find this hard to believe but it’s true. After the initial, “Well, this sucks!” I thought to myself, “I guess all in all I’m pretty lucky. I could be dealing with a much worse situation. There are people throughout the world fighting each day just to survive and my biggest worry today is if I can get my computer working again.” Do you see where I’m going here? Sure, my life could be worse but that’s not really it. There’s so much more than just, it could be worse. It’s about how the people who are having it worse continue on, how they find the strength to keep going, how they can grasp onto the tiny bits of hope and pull themselves up; and also, how I (we), who has (have) much less to worry about can learn and in turn share back the hope to those people who gave it to me (us) in the first place.

I’d like to share a bit with you about the days following my daughter’s death. I’m not ready, yet, to go into the depths of my feelings and thoughts on the subject but something happened when she died that you should know about.

As a recovering alcoholic I know all too well that the death of a loved one could easily lead to a relapse, even for a veteran of 21 years now. Because I know this and even though I didn’t feel like I wanted a drink, I knew I had to get myself to a meeting. Now, prior to this, I hadn’t been to a meeting in a good long time. I had moved to a new city and never bothered to check out where any meetings were even held. Needless to say, I was downtrodden enough and not really in a state of mind to go looking up local meetings. Here’s where the universe comes in....I know because this sort of thing happens to me often...if you strive to live your life in tune with the energies around you, life will find a way of giving you what you need. Getting back to the AA meetings...I’m trying to comprehend that my baby, my youngest daughter, has passed away but the rent still has to be paid...so, I walk over to the church, where I’m renting from, to pay the rent and on the front door of the place there’s a little ol’ sign, “Tonight’s  7:00 PM AA meeting has been moved to room XXX.” I kid you not. So at 7:00 I went to the meeting without knowing what type of meeting it would be. Some are quite large with one or two people sharing their experience, other’s are smaller and more intimate. This one, as it turns out, was the latter. I walked into a group of about 7 or 8 people who listened to me introduce myself and then put the entire itinerary on hold for the night so that they could listen to me and so they could assure me that they were there for me and they cared.

I don’t know if you see the connection here to hope, yet, but for me it’s like this. That little sign on the door gave me a spark of hope during the darkest days of my life. The people that were there for me gave me the confidence to go on and the hope that someday light would return to my life. It’s in these small things that I find the largest gifts and I can’t help but feel that I’m not the only one in this world who understands that.

When I hear about or read the news and see such awful things happening in the world, people in the Ukraine and Russia, the Middle East, and Africa living with the daily horrors of war. Others dealing with illness, famine, natural disasters, everywhere I look I see what could be seen as hopelessness, but I don’t. Instead I see hope. I see that despite the most horrendous difficulties and the highest obstacles people continue to move forward, they trudge on and I believe they do this because they have hope. Somewhere inside them they find that same little spark and believe it’s going to get better so they keep going and in the process they set an example, an example of hope for the next person who is struggling through what could be a hopeless situation. It’s hope that has allowed the human race to persevere. It’s hope that motivates each and every one of us to get up and get on with our day, our lives, and our dreams of a better life.

Human beings are a remarkable species and our ability to hold on to hope is one of the reasons why. I can survive the death of my daughter because I have hope that maybe, just maybe, one day joy will return to me, I hope that I can give her son a vivid, lasting image of her, and that even though we have to go on without her, life can still be good. Our species thrives on this type of hope. When we see it in others we are inspired to hang on to our hope and a beautiful circle of hope and light is created and carries onward throughout the existence of the human animal.

So there it is, one strange little incident that began with a computer malfunction that blossomed into an entire contemplative experience. If you’re reading this then my hope for you is that you find within yourself the hope you need at this moment in your life. Know that somewhere out in this large world you have an ally who is hoping to pass the spark along to you and hoping that you, in turn, will keep that spark alive by passing it on to someone else. In these troubled times be of good cheer and hope for a better tomorrow. And remember that even in the smallest incidents hope can live large.

Modern Day Living and the Human Brain - Part II - A New Species?

Photo Credit - Charles Rondeau - Public Domain Pictures

Have you ever watched “Through the Wormhole” with Morgan Freeman? Personally, I love the show but I only get a chance to watch it every now and then. A little while back I was able to catch an episode. They were discussing the internet and the various effects it had on society today. I found the topic to be so intriguing I just had to share.

The first thing which hit me was the idea of being addicted to the internet. Actually, this just isn’t as strange as it may sound. When a person becomes an addict they become dependent on whatever substance is their drug of choice. When they are deprived of that drug they will suffer physical withdrawal. This means that their bodies go through measurable changes which can be noticed by others, as well as, the person experiencing the withdrawal. In the case of Internet addiction, scientists examined people who spent an average of 10 hours a day online. Then, they took them offline. The test subjects displayed all the symptoms of drug withdrawal; they had higher rates of aggression, impatience, jitters, and all the other nasty symptoms of withdrawal. Internet addiction is a real thing. Interestingly, addiction to the internet has an additional symptom that no drug or alcohol addiction can claim. It’s true, I’m not making this up - the Internet will shrink your brain. We are talking actual, measurable size differences when a person becomes an Internet junkie. MRIs and CAT Scans were done on these junkies and scientists found changes to both sides of the prefrontal cortex and to the sides of each brain. Their brains shrunk, this is a physical change that does not take place with drug and/or alcohol addiction. We’re into a whole new game here, and that’s just the beginning.

What else could this Internet be doing to the human race? Well, how about absorbing us into it, just as a single cell organism is absorbed into a larger life form? Do you think this is Sci-Fi? It really isn’t. There are, in fact, reputable scientists who believe that the Internet could easily become a sentient life form. The premise works like this....we, human beings, are the mitochondrial DNA which is absorbed into the larger life form, the living Internet. They base this idea on the fact that the internet has enough information and enough processing power that it would be able to develop an understanding of humanity well beyond any understanding we ourselves would be capable of. If, or when, that happens the human race will no longer be the dominant species on earth. It is at this point, when we may witness the merging of technology and human beings, as it could be beneficial to both. This wouldn’t be the first time Sci-Fi ideas came into actual existence you know. Perhaps we truly are in the dawn of a new era, a new evolutionary step for the human animal. Maybe, just maybe, our need to be connected and the sentient Internet’s need to feel and experience life will lead us into a merger of unimaginable evolutionary growth. So, now I wonder, how much Internet do you need?

Modern Day Living and the Human Brain - Part I: Your Child May be at Risk

Photo Credit - Karen Arnold - Public Domain Pictures

Modern day living has given our society some marvelous benefits, but some of those benefits may be costing us dearly. Living in the world today is tough, there’s no question. Every adult has seen the changes from technology, to global warming, to the health and welfare of ourselves and our children. But, some of the things that we take for granted today may be causing us a lot of harm. Yes, technology is having a giant effect on our brains and I will get to that, but first, I want to talk about our children. This article isn’t just about the technology that everyone, including our children, is affected by. I’m also talking about the effects of society on our kids. Listen up parents! Their future may be permanently altered because of your financial status.

Oh sure, everyone knows about the disparity of social classes and that the rich will always benefit more than the poor, but now we know why. Recent studies have discovered that children who live in poverty will grow up with substandard brains. In an article presented by NPR we learn that a child’s environment has a physical effect on the development of their brain. This isn’t due to a poorer diet, or a lack of housing in and of itself, but rather the stress which is caused from those situations. Along with worrying about violence, the daily stress that is present in a poor child’s life is changing their brains. It is being called “Toxic Stress” and a child who has suffered three or more traumatic events within a year may very well be dealing with this. A school in LA did a survey and found that eight in ten students fell into this category. A traumatic event may include such life issues as losing a home, or a family member, neighborhood shootings, divorce, having to deal with the stress of an unemployed parent, or not having enough food. These stressors in a child’s brain become cumulative and physically change the brain.

The changes that take place are primarily in the prefrontal cortex. This is the area of the brain responsible for problem solving and learning. It also carries the brunt of the weight when it comes to learning how to control emotions. We often hear adults making remarks such as, “What’s wrong with these kids today?” or “Kids today are more violent.” I say, what do you expect? Poverty levels continue to rise, the income gap grows larger and larger with each passing year, and now we have proof that these circumstances are creating a generation of children who, not only don’t care, but are physically unable to. The mental health of tomorrow’s adults is being dealt physical blows that they may never be able to recover from because their brains have been permanently altered. If the parts of the brain needed to process emotions are not there how can we expect a person to properly deal with emotions? If the problem solving area of the brain is stunted why are we shocked to find children who can’t figure out something we would consider to be a simple task? This is plainly showing us that we need to take the mental health of our children much more serious!

Okay, so I have your attention, I hope. Now let’s talk about how we can fix this. One of the most efficient ways to reach children is through the schools. The kids are there which basically creates captive participants, so to speak. The schools which participated in the studies found that having more counselors in the school was a good start. Where the child felt like they had the support of an adult, they improved. The schools also equipped themselves with more after school programs and tutoring. They set up programs for the adults, too. Parents were given help in the areas they needed, as well as, being taught how to better handle these same stressors. Most parents want to help their children, the problem, I think, is that mental health over the years has received such a bad wrap no one wants to deal with it. However, if parents can see that there is physical damage being done to their child, just as if an arm or a leg were being lost, they would want to help.

There is, of course, one big problem with getting our children the help they desperately need. Money. Where will it come from? Across the board school systems have had to deal with cuts to their budget. We’re not talking small cuts either. These cuts are so large that schools have had to let go of counselors, administrators, and even teachers. Why have the schools seen such dramatic cuts to their funding? The simple answer, politics. Our representatives see our children’s education as a non-priority. Let’s face it, most of our representatives are millionaires, this is not going to be an issue which directly impacts them. Their children are sent to the finest schools and chances are pretty good that they will never have to worry about a neighborhood drive by. So what can we, in the trenches, do about it? We can vote! Duh! This is the only way things are going to change. We need to demand that the educational system gets the funding it so desperately needs to combat this problem. Without the support of the house and the senate our children will never be able to grow a healthy brain. We need these support programs and we need them now. Oh look! It’s an election year for our representatives and senators. How convenient is that people? Let’s make some noise and tell the people who are supposed to represent us that we want to see the educational system get the necessary funds to run these programs. If we wait until our children are grown and out of school we will have lost the fight, recovery for them will most likely never happen. Is that what you want for your son or daughter?

Next post will look at the brains of adults and we will see how that well loved internet is working to change our brains. Yes, there is more physical evidence. And speaking of the internet is it possible that it could become self aware, a living entity which in its all knowing self may one day reign as earth’s new dominant life form? Tune in and see.