Where do we go from here?

Monotheism is evolving.  It started out in Egypt about 3500 years ago, was introduced into the Canaan territory by an Egyptian exile (Moses) who established the Hebrew (Jewish) religion.  The next big step was the work of the Apostle Paul in establishing synagogues that promoted the story of Jesus Christ throughout the Middle East.  Our present day Christian religion was really initiated by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD and then Christianity began a long, contentious, and bloody extension into more than 3000 denominations.

Thanks to a few leaders like retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong there is a chance that Christianity may eventually evolve into a more reasonable and useful religion.  I agree with him that atheism is not a solution.  There is a Supreme Being.  We human beings just do not have the intelligence or imagination to be able to conceive of the real thing.  Also, most of the time, we don’t have the imagination or intelligence to take full advantage of the unconditional love provided by this Being.  We are just conscious enough to be one step ahead of our dog.

We need to think about how we can help Christianity evolve into something that would truly be “God’s Kingdom on Earth”.

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest . . . a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  (Albert Einstein)

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I don’t know why I use the term “Christianity”. There are already more than 3,000 “Christian” denominations, the title is almost meaningless.  I guess we need a new Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, or someone like that to show us the way.  The term “unconditional love” keeps coming up in my musing.   If unconditional love could be a major force in our culture, its source would be the Invisible Being that we are a part of.  It is there, it is available, it  just needs to be used as a basis for our daily behavior.

Jesus often promoted unconditional love: the Good Samaritan, turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, touch the unclean, love one another, remove the beam from your own eye, etc.  In that same vein, Bishop Spong’s admonitions “do not diminish another” and “give wastefully” would qualify.  This would require true humility.  To me real, sincere humility is a sign of strength, not an indication of weakness. With the egos we all have, and the culture we live in, true humility is probably one of the most difficult personality traits to acquire and maintain.

Jesus Christ was not a power broker.  Instead, He promoted unconditional love, prolific  generosity, and true humility.  “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven!”

Who is a socialist?

I have been called a “socialist” because I believe that every person in the United States (regardless of their birthplace) should have the same kind of medical care and education that is available to me and the members of my extended family at the present time.  I also believe that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are worthwhile programs and should be continued – that is also a “socialist” opinion to the conservative Republicans and the Tea Baggers.

The dictionary says that ‘socialism’ is: “a system of society or group living in which there is no private property.”  Who says that I want to give up everything I own?  If we want to get into name-calling or pejorative labels I would call my critics “fascists”.  The dictionary definition of ‘fascism’ is: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and race and stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Our fundamentalist conservatives and the Tea-Party have a political philosophy that exalts our nation (no one is as good as we are), is racist (Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks), wants a small, autocratic, centralized government (NO, NO, NO, unless we are in control), pass laws that create social regimentation (abortion, homosexuality), and use smart bombs to subdue the opposition. This is very close to the dictionary definition of fascism.  Now, all we need is a dictator.  Perhaps Mr. Cheney or Mr. Rove would qualify.  They ran the Bush administration from the back seat for eight years.

A reminder: Jesus Christ was not a power broker.  Instead, He promoted unconditional love, prolific generosity, and true humility.  “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven!”

A beautiful story

Thought you all might enjoy this!

In an article from the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle,
reads a story of a female humpback whale who had become
entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was
weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to
struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope
wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her
mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands
(outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for
help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined
that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and
untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and
eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in
what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and
every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently
around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most
incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the
rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole
time, and he will never be the same. May you, and all those you
love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who
will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude

Here I am, telling the world all I know

I have been called a “socialist” because I believe that every person in the United States should have the same kind of medical care that is available to me at the present time.  I also believe that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are worthwhile programs and should be continued – that is also a “socialist” opinion to the conservative Republicans and the Tea Baggers.

The dictionary says that ‘socialism’ is: “a system of society or group living in which there is no private property.”  Who says that I want to give up everything I own?  If we want to get into name calling or pejorative labels I would call my critics “fascists”.  The dictionary definition of ‘fascism’ is: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and race and stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Our fundamentalist conservatives have a political philosophy that exalts our nation, is racist, wants an autocratic centralized government if they are in control, pass laws that create social regimentation and use smart bombs to subdue the opposition. Enough said; when we diminish others we diminish ourselves!

I am a veteran of World War Two.  I served in the South Pacific, in New Guinea, Biak, Leyte, Zamboanga, and Jolo.  Then we went to Japan (we rode out a typhoon on the way).  In Japan we were first stationed in Kure, a seaport that is just 14 miles from Hiroshima.  Not very long after we were there the Lieutenant that was our section leader got a vehicle from the motor pool and we went to Hiroshima to satisfy our curiosity.  This was probably about six weeks after the big blast.  The A-bomb that devastated Hiroshima went off about 1200 feet above the ground so radioactivity was not a problem, or if it was, we did not know any better.  I was only 19 years old at the time, green as grass, but the sight of that devastation has remained with me ever since.  Our atomic bomb killed 200,000 people with one flash.  The bomb took no prisoners.  It killed women, children, elderly, workers, non-workers, most of them innocent victims.

Things have not gotten any better.  We initiated an illegal war on Iraq in which we lost more than 4,000 service men and women.  We used the tactic called “Shock and Awe” which does not discriminate in type of victim.  It is estimated that we killed between 160,000 and 200,000 innocent women, children, and elderly citizens of Iraq.  We used “smart bombs” because they cause less collateral damage.  Does that mean if we had used WWII type bombs, the innocent casualties would have been 4 or 5 hundred thousand?  Now we are having difficulties in Afghanistan because our drones are killing too many innocent civilians.  Why are we there, anyway?

Now, the Armed Services.  In WWII we survived on rations until we got to Japan.  At our staging bases, the cooks took the cases of 10-in-one rations, opened the cans, poured  them all in one big pot, heated them up and served it as mulligan stew.  Sometimes we did get oat meal for breakfast.  We were in the tropics, so we often had local fruit, particularly bananas.  It took three months for my mother’s letter to get to me.  Now, as I understand it, the personnel of the Armed Services are fed by contractors and, transportation being what it is, they get good food, well cooked.  Contractors also transport vehicle fuel, needed supplies, and personnel.  In my day, fuel and supplies were a Quartermaster responsibility and personnel were transported by the Navy, the Air Force, or by Army or Marine vehicles. 

In a recent news broadcast it was mentioned that a contractor employee on the ground in Iraq is paid as much in one day as a Marine Corporal receives in a month.  The contract personnel are employed by a corporation that is a subsidiary of Halliburton, Inc.  Guess who was the CEO of Halliburton just before he was elected to the Vice Presidency of the United States?  That’s right, Mr. Cheney.  This same source mentioned that Mr. Cheney also received an annual remuneration from Halliburton every year he was Vice President in the amount of $293,000, which was in addition to his government salary of $220,000.  Of the billions of dollars that were expended in the Iraq war, what percentage went to the contractors?  This looks like a very expensive way to conduct a war.

Evidently no one in the previous administration or congress was concerned about the fact that Halliburton acquired the war contracts without having to bid on them, nor were they concerned about Mr. Cheney’s relationship to Halliburton, Inc.  From 2001 until 2008 no one seemed very worried about the fact that the national debt  was multiplied by five.  Now, the Republican politicians complain about additions to the national debt, even though their policies created most of it.  I might give the Republican propaganda some consideration if they did not assume I was so dumb.

God must truly love the dumb and gullible – He made so many of them!

Painted Hills

Here are some pictures of the famous Painted Hills.  These were taken on our trip to the John Day Fossil Bed area during the first week in August this year.  We stayed in the big city of Mitchell for three days.  We went with Paula and Dan and Malinda and Tom - the four of them paid for the trip as a 2010 birthday present for JoAn and I (Hal).  We really had a most wonderful time!

Where do we go from here?

A little water lily from the Oregon Gardens

Here is a story that I got from the Bishop Spong forum.  There was a recent discussion about the “afterlife”.  There is a lot of conjecture about this subject, but no one knows anything about it.  This little story was inserted into the forum by Judith, a woman in her late sixties, who is the widow of a Lutheran Pastor.  In the forum she sounds like a person that I would like to know – she is bright, has a sense of humor, and writes well.  Here is the entry she made today:

Here’s a joke to reinforce this whole idea (This is from Norman Mailer’s book, “On God”. Page 23. I’ve changed it somewhat to suit my purpose): A white lady goes up before the “committee” in Heaven (a committee, as surely as there has to be one as God couldn’t possibly judge everyone that dies). The committee chairperson says, “Oh, Ms. Judith, we’re so glad to see you. We’ve been waiting. Now, tell us – we ask everyone this – what would be your idea of a proper reincarnation for yourself? What would you like to be in your next life?”
Ms. Judith replies, “Well, you know, everything considered, I think I’d like to be a great pianist.”
The committee chairperson’s face clouds up. “Oh, Ms. Judith,” he says, “everyone these days wants to be a great pianist. Right now, we’re dreadfully oversubscribed. So let me see where you have been put.” He looks it up. He says, “I’m afraid we’ve got you down for cockroach. But – here is the good news – you’ll be the fastest cockroach on the block!”
Of course, Norman Mailer believes in reincarnation. He has his own ideas as to what will happen to the soul after it leaves the body. Just like we all have our own ideas as to what or who God is and what will happen to the soul (whatever that is) when we die.
 [I can't imagine who I did away with recently, as I killed three big cockroaches.] ~smile~  Judith

Classic Car for sale that is pretty reasonable

If you are looking for a classic car that needs a little repair, I think I found one for you over in the John Day Fossil Bed area.  These pictures are rather small, but if you want to make them a little larger on your monitor you can just double click on the picture