It could be anytime, anywhere
When I hold your hand, I disappear
Into your world, into your world
Into your perfect world of love
Spinning, twirling, whirling by
All the moments of my life flying by
Until I hold your hand and time seems to stand still
In your perfect world of love
So many days, in so many ways
I feel lost and it’s you I’m calling
And when I hold your hand, I find myself freely falling
Into your perfect world of love
WHERE HAVE ALL THE GREAT MEN GONE
My question is a simple one – where have all the great men gone? Throughout recorded history there has been a litany of great men and women who have inspired generations of young adults to chase their dreams and very often succeed in doing so.
Anyone astute enough to examine this world we are living in beyond the sound bites spewed by every media outlet should recognize that the Millennials may very well have the hardest task in front of them than any previous generation in centuries. One major factor to this is the total lack of great leaders in the world now that can inspire a generation.
What makes this a unique time in history is that multiple situations have come to pass that can cause the extinction of homo sapiens on the planet. We now have a nuclear situation that has the potential for mass destruction on a scale that would create a nuclear winter that would cleanse the planet of nearly every living thing. Then of course there is the threat of deadly viruses that spread more rapidly worldwide due to extensive air travel. But the real threat is climate change. No matter what the politicians spew regarding this matter the science is incontrovertible.
My father’s generation fought in WWII in a world when the threat of domination was real and two great men, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill inspired an entire world to make a stand. Dwight Eisenhower warned the country of the military industrial complex that has completely crippled the economy of America through decades of war so the boys can play with their toys. Gandhi proved to all of us that one man with conviction and dedication can inspire millions.
Why have we no leaders today that can inspire this young generation to tackle the immense challenges they will soon face? I for one believe that money and greed has completely corrupted those in a position to make a difference. I do believe there are great men and women who can and do inspire but they are for the most part lost among media noise intended to deafen us.
Millennial’s may be our only hope in the fact that they are beginning to tune out the noise. They have the burden of the largest student debt combined with the lowest wages for college graduates in history. Needless to say, few of them think the American dream is alive and a vast number of Americans feel the same way. They have no allegiance to those in position of power. The fact is they have a growing disregard for them. The irony is those individuals wanting to remain in power are beholding to these young voters to keep them there.
Each generation finds a way to stamp time with their uniqueness. I came of age when there was a great surge against “the man”. I suspect we will see another one very soon.
I’m so tired of working like a dog
Worrying about all the things
That don’t mean
A damn thing to me
I just want to get away
Take a step back, slip away
You and I, just fade away
Fade away
And on these hazy days
I imagine all the lazy ways
I can spend in your arms
Spellbound by your charms
Dancing under the moonlight, our shadows flickering
In the firelight, everything’s all right
Breathing’s getting easier these days
There’s a freedom in the winds that stray our way
And on these hazy days
I imagine all the lazy ways
I can spend in your arms
Spellbound by your charms
I just want to get away
Take a step back, slip away
You and I, just fade away
Fade away
Wafting, wandering through the house
Vapors caressing, swirling about
Searching for and finding perch
Within my nose, my smile, my smirch
She brews a stew
With a sorcerer’s charm
Blending a beguiling brisket of beef
She steals my soul, like a culinary thief
At times I nod off
For just a little while
To awaken from savory scents
That brings a smile
Each recipe contains
A pinch of this, a pinch of that
But her unique recipes possess a peculiar potion
Filled with her blend of love and devotion
Seems these days we don’t agree on most anything
Even our hearts seem to be lost in futility
We have both abandoned what we’ve always dreamed
A life together, a love so strong, when did it all go wrong
Will you still hear my voice echo through the empty halls
Will my picture still be hanging on the wall
Will you still hear my voice echo through the empty halls
Will you see my shadow on the wall
When I’m gone, When I’m gone, When I’m gone, When I’m gone
We’ve both forgotten the crazy loved we shared
When I looked into your eyes the world disappeared
And just a kiss, one sweet kiss was my great escape
And your body next to mine is still imprinted in my brain
Seems these days we don’t agree on most anything
Even our hearts seem to be lost in futility
We have both abandoned what we’ve always dreamed
A life together, a love so strong, when did it all go wrong
Will you still hear my voice echo through the empty halls
Will my picture still be hanging on the wall
Will you still hear my voice echo through the empty halls
Will you see my shadow on the wall
When I’m gone, When I’m gone, When I’m gone, When I’m gone
What if everything you believe in is a lie? How could this be you ask? How can I have lived a lifetime, no matter how short or long, worked so hard and learned so many of life’s lessons and have someone tell me what I have come to believe is a lie? Well, let’s talk about that.
Did you also believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny? How did that work out for you? You were convinced by the people (most often family members) that you trusted the most in your life that they were absolutely real. How could you not when presents were under the tree, money was under your pillow, and eggs were hidden around the house?
What happened along the way that swayed your belief in these fantasies? There is a one-word answer for this…awareness. That’s right folks, as your awareness grew your beliefs changed. I am just guessing here but I bet some of you thought that one word would be knowledge. But here is the kicker; gaining knowledge is not the same as attaining awareness. You can have an IQ of 170 with all the knowledge to win Jeopardy every day but not be aware of the simplest of things.
Let us ponder that last sentence and put it into context with one’s beliefs. Let us use a college student whose major is history for example. Let us assume she is studying at one of the best universities in the world and has at her disposal amazing reference sources and world-famous professors. We will call her Sue. Sue has worked extremely hard for her straight A’s and has learned to have complete faith in her instructors to provide the best possible answers to her queries. As her status grows in the community and others begin to seek her expertise her belief in the knowledge that she has gained becomes resolute.
But has she gained “awareness” of the lives she has studied in books? Now she may have the knowledge of the struggles the first settlers in America may have gone through. She may have even spent time working at a historic site churning butter and dressed as a Pilgrim. But through all her efforts, she has not gained a single ounce of awareness of what went through the minds of these brave and often desperate men and women who risked everything to start a new life in an unknown land. No book or lecture can create this awareness and no life experiences she may yet have, even if they are similar in nature, can give her that awareness. Why do you ask?
Because the truth is subjective. Each one of us will experience truth from our own perspective. You may believe lobster is the best food on the planet and I may believe it is a gift from Satan. Neither of these opinions is true, but we both believe them to be so. You can believe Fox News is the best cable news station and I could believe MSNBC is. This does not make either opinion true; it just makes it our opinion. What it does make it is our truth, well maybe. We must first wrap our heads around the fact we have a way too much clutter up there.
You see, we live in a world of duality…night and day, left and right, right, and wrong, up and down, wealth and poverty, good and evil, love and hate…you get the idea. If we stand back to back and someone tells us to point to the left, we will be pointing in different directions. If you are in the Arctic and look up and I am in the Antarctic and look up, we will be both be looking up in different directions. How could we both be right, or left? Simply put because the physical universe is one of illusion. Like any good illusion, it convinces you that what you see is real. The ironic thing about this is that to find the solution to the magic trick most of us delve into more mysteries of illusion with eyes wide open and minds closed.
How do we as humans, apparently trapped in these physical bodies, see beyond these illusions? Let me ask you a simple question which I ask each of you to ponder. If God (proving this to you in some way without a doubt) came to you and said, “I have one command for you, BE HAPPY”, could you? Would you even know how to?
Let me take this one step further. Can you be happy for a single moment? That does not seem like such a hard thing to do. Does it? Right now, this very moment, can you be happy? And the next moment, and the next? See where I am going with this? It is much easier to attain a transformative state of being by living in the now. We as soul have been blessed with two tools to wend our way through the illusions, ATTITUDE, AND ATTENTION.
What we place our attention on and the attitude we take towards this will determine how successful we are at discovering the truth within ourselves, as ultimately this is the only truth we can know. This is not an easy path and most humans would rather be slaves to the beliefs and conditions that surround them in their daily lives. It is the meek that inherit the earth. It is the bold that inherit heaven. It takes the willingness to step out of your comfort zone and strength to let go of everything you hold as true in order to break the barriers established by the illusions you have been a slave to all your life.
Are you ready to begin a journey of discovery? Are you willing to make hard choices that may shake you to your core? Have you ever had A-HA moments of enlightenment that have seemed to come from nowhere? When you choose the freedom that comes from never knowing what the next moment may bring, each moment in your life is one of wonder. Can you imagine what that would be like?
Good, because that is the first step to gaining awareness. I would ask that you ponder this short article and then revisit it in a couple of months and see if your point of view on this matter has altered. Please leave any responses as they are all welcome to the discussion. There will be more regarding this matter in future posts. This may all be a lie.
I find myself orphaned on this deserted island
A returned prodigal
My only inspiration an occasional
Sliver of blue
I was an appetent victim of your coquetry
I drank from your Circe elixir
You are a siren, a piece de resistance
An arabesque of womanhood
All your gracious beauty
Your infallible reflection
Disguised so adequately
A heart of callosity
Hollow is my heart
I dwell in somber perpetuity
The price I pay
For courageous credulity
As feathers, the flakes fall
Backlit by a crescent moon
They melt
On my tongue
As I lie in cold wetness
I am teased
Seized, by the moment
Held captive by its spectacle
The singular sound I hear
Must be my shallow breathing
Involuntarily I sense
I trespass on this stage
It’s time to take my leave
Allow my blood to flow
Below the crunching underfoot
Are footsteps soon to be extinct
PRIORITIES FOR LIFE
The average adult human being lives his/her life with a certain set of priorities. Now, most of these have been inherited, set in stone, and handed down for generations. Go to school, get a job, work hard, fall in love, have a family, believe in God. You get the point. Look around at your family and friends. I am guessing at least 80% of the people you know fall into this category. This is what I would define as the pursuit of complacency. In seeking what is normal and comfortable one abandons the deeper levels of consciousness that reveal our true selves.
The driving factor that motivates nearly all of us is love. Love that is generally felt at an emotional level. Love that comes with attachments. Love that makes demands. What I will refer to as human love. Let me expound on this human love.
Let us start with self-love. In the most basic of terms, this could be egotism, vanity, arrogance, etc… At the highest levels, it could be caring, selflessness, sacrifice for the greater good above selfish intentions.
As humans, we fall into these cycles that resemble a workout on a treadmill. We work hard to get eventually nowhere in a spiritual sense. Now there is some growth of awareness. The sense that there is more to life beyond our comprehension. Many confuse this with faith. Understand that believing is not the same as knowing. Knowledge is the key to any kingdom. One can believe he/she can drive a car, but without the knowledge necessary to do so one will only fail. Belief can be a spark or a hindrance to greater awareness.
So how do we as humans generally obtain knowledge? We seek knowledge from without. The most common method is through mentors. That could be our parents, teachers, ministers, the school of hard knocks. What do all these mentors have in common? They are flawed. They teach through the lens of limitations and personal perspectives.
We now have at our fingertips the mass of informational wealth the internet provides. But just like mentors, we can choose to find information that suits our beliefs instead of broadening our horizons.
What it really comes down to this. Truth is subjective. We all experience truth in our own unique way. And that is exactly how we should be living a life of priorities, not based on what we were taught, but on priorities from which we caught. We all have aha moments that sneak up on us while we least suspect it. These are opportunities we need to pay attention to and build priorities on.
The only love worth pursuing is divine love. Divine love has no expectations, no beliefs, no attachments to self. It is pure, untainted, all-encompassing. It is simply a state of consciousness achieved only when one is ready to abandon self and surrender to pure love. At every step of the evolution of a life, one abandons what they know when new information is available. This is no different in the realm of spirituality. The difference is when one is on a spiritual path the ultimate teacher is yourself.
The question is this…are you satisfied with your priorities or do you have a hunger for a truth you know lies within yourself? Are you ready to drop beliefs that have been programmed for you and spread your wings as you jump off the cliff? As Jesus said, “the meek will inherit the earth”. What he left out is that it is the bold that inherit heaven.
Sailing the ocean in your eyes
On a blue and balmy breeze
Striking out for an eternity
On your seven seas
And in the shade of your hair
I can’t help but stare
Deep within the secrets
You so gladly share
And I can feel my soul slipping away
Searching for the simple way
To delay setting ashore
Forevermore
Written in 1972