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We The People ... I A Person
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” – James Madison
Yes, that time is once again upon us, when every four years we have to choose a President for the good old U S of A, from the leftovers the two major parties push upon us. Of course, usually that means choosing the least of two evils. And yes, politics is not usually what we go into here, so we won’t get too heavy into it, just explore it from a more philosophical point of view … and see if we can relate it to how that can affect our own spiritual potential.
Actually, I have many times enjoyed discussing the intellectual theories of government, but I absolutely hate politics. I know, they are difficult to separate from each other. Too bad. In college I started out as a government major, minoring in economics. I remember that one of my term papers was about trying to match up the best economic system with the best legal system. That was an intriguing exercise, and required a lot of research on my part. Of course, there was no Internet back in those dark ages, so hitting the library late at night for long hours was absolutely required. I learned a few things. Such as, oftentimes government was not the solution, but the problem. Disheartening. Not sure Madison knew what he was talking about in all his governmental theories, except maybe the part about men not being angels (other than I think they may have that potential). Because as much as the Founding Fathers preached about small government, it seemed maybe even they relied on it (bigger government) too much.
My Love, My Lady
Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is wasted time
Look inside your heart, I’ll look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind, we try to see
Falling behind in what could be
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where’s that higher love I keep thinking of?
“Higher Love”, Stevie Winwood
Yes, we are back into the obviously complex, utterly mysterious world of … love. Isn’t it wonderful, to explore a world so many of us seem to know so little of? But yet, I still think we may know a little more than we give ourselves credit for. Maybe the world just conspires against us, so we will spend more time trying to learn and experience it, instead of worrying and fretting about it.
I wrote about love in my last entry, in a bit of a clinical way. Mainly because it was meant to be more of an intro into a world we may explore a bit here now and then. Being that it is so very important in the fabric of our lives.
I feel I am a very fortunate man. I have been married three times, all to wonderful women. My first marriage was to my high school sweetheart, but it did not last too long for our immaturity caught up with us before a strong enough foundation could be built for a lasting relationship. Of course there were other factors, but the important thing is that we have remained good friends over all these years. In fact, I saw her just last month. And we still can have fun and laugh together like we used to. She has been married to a wonderful man for years, and they have a pretty amazing teenage son, who refers to me as an uncle.
Silver Love
“To be content in bliss, without desire or insistence anywhere, this was heaven: to be together in happy stillness.” — D.H. Lawrence
I know I haven’t posted in a bit, but I just recently came down from two weeks of camping, hiking, meditating and just hanging out with nature and friends up on Mt. Shasta, one of my favorite places to go. So, as they say, I was off the grid for a while, recharging my batteries for my existence back in the lowlands of the normal physical world.
I first came up to Mt. Shasta in 1972, forty years ago. I was only twenty years young then. Of course, I’ve aged a bit since then, both in body and in spirit. However, I’d like to think I’ve traded those years for something worthwhile, like gaining a little wisdom, and learning a few lessons from the immature trials of inexperienced youth.
And one of those lessons involves a simple but powerful lesson called love. At the retreat on Mt. Shasta this year that theme kept popping its inquiring head around at me, like saying ‘okay, are you really comprehending how this silver love thing works?’ Uh, well, I thought so. But hey, maybe not? Well anyway, while I’m at it, let me explain a little about this silver love thing. And no, it doesn’t mean love between senior citizens, something that has been bantered about some.
Rocket Man
“And I think its gonna be a long, long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home.
Oh no, no, no, I’m a rocket man.
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone …”
“Rocket Man”, Elton John
Do you remember when you were little, and you thought for the very first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up? I actually remember that day very clearly, for it was when one of my very first dreams took root. Which makes remembering when John Glenn orbited the Earth for the first time special, not only because it was around my 10th birthday but because it was about that dream.
In the early 1960’s I remember reading about the new space program in our little Weekly Readers in elementary school. And I became mesmerized with it. So I started reading everything I could find about it. Anything I guess an elementary school kid could understand. But I couldn’t get enough of it. When I got a book about what it took to be an astronaut, I was hooked. I wanted to go in space. One way or another I was going. I had to, or else… I just never realized it would be without my physical body.
A Matter of Altitude
“May your spirit soar throughout the vast cathedral of your being.” – Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The last month or so, I have down in the dumps a bit. Not really down in a depressed way, but just not at my normal foundation of “up-ness.” For the most part, meditating provides me with a lift, but lately not quite enough to what my level of ‘normal’ is. I haven’t really let it concern me too much but after almost a month of it, which is usually a long funk for me, I have been wondering what was up. Most of the time I try to go through a checklist of any issue or problem that comes up.
I first try to decipher if it’s something that’s going on inside of me. If I don’t get any clues there, I start searching outside myself. If not much comes up there, I have to ponder deeper. I did all those things, but nothing significant presented itself. Only minor, seemingly insignificant things came up. So now, I was at a bit of a loss. I just decided to keep up with my normal day to day routine and hoped I would pull myself out of it somehow. Nothing gave, so I gave up on my normal routine for a few days and wound up doing very little for awhile. That just made me tired and drained, and then I felt worse. Something needed to happen. Ask and ye shall receive, as they say. Or someone did, I think in the Bible.