Merry Christmas

 To family and friends

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. May you have bright days with lots of love, laughter and good food. 

Happy Hanukah

 

Wishing all of us, happier times of love, support, flowers and birds, and of course trees. So many things we take for granted yet cover with tinsel and wine.

A very strong statement

 

https://www.tarapalmeri.com/p/the-good-old-boys-club-is-running?utm_source=live-stream-redirect&triedRedirect=true

Tara Palmer is a strong advocate for good journalism, honesty and journalism with integrity.

USA is being destroyed intentionally I believe. Tara is strong unlflinching and beautiful. Please listen to this broadcast.

Why would anyone want to destroy a journalist?

Why is such a powerful nation trying so hard to keep truth out of media. Why investing in such big lies?

One Old Lady

 Dear Humanity

Please come back to earth.

We know you have done a lot of damage to the world to say you are intelligent and good, but now we need to get back to the serious business of survival.

Our world is in danger of forgetting who we are and where we came from.

The rulers who are given power believe now only power counts. As long as those with the most money run this world, we shall be safe.

I think that has already proven to be not so. First is the acceptance that intelligence is bestowed on humans as long as they are white and male but the recent politics of America whom we admired for centuries have indicated a weakness. 

There are different kinds of intelligence I believe. Medicine, Science, Manufacture, Discipline.

In all fairness we are complicated by what we know and what we think we know. To make politics understandable. We have focused our intelligence on power because power is so watchable and so influential. Easy to believer that power is a public commodity. 

For centuries we created countries and leaders who claimed plots of land and followed our claims with displays which show our power, through wealth and war.

The power each country had was shown through conquest and wealth.

However there is another part to leadership which is empathy and ability to lead people. But it's not just power which can be shown by wealth and war and now we need to communicate with others even if we don't speak the same language.

Power hungry people don't always have the patience to learn about our cousins and neighbours and organize their world to keep out those they don't like or create societies that take away the power of those who threaten the rulers. Democracy was created  to deal with this tension. Civilization was built for the success of society.

Come my children my friends my teachers - my grieving family and friends

 

This is not your fault. This is the design of power for power's sake. The design for the exploitation of humanity turning itself into bullets. Or money or power or the next religion.

The issue is the ego.

How we believe we are the good this planet needs.

Along with your granny and the wise teachers, you are searching for truth. Or truths to help us feel at home.

Now we know that the white man can be corrupted as the poison in some plants. It's not a matter of cramming all the news that's broadcast.

Or having the money to buy the most recent inventions, or the man with the highest IQ. Or some next best thing.

Not even the angel floating on the cloud waiting for us to pay attention.

There are no solutions but there are things that can help us.

Get rid of our vanities. Be our humble selves. There has never been WHITE SUPREMACY. There was white vanity looking for the people who helped America survive. The slaves with a different colour skin. We've just about hung them all from trees, put them in jail, poisoned or overworked them. White people have killed them, not all but most.

America was great but it thought killing was the way to win. Britain was great until satanic mills drained them up.

Throughout human civilization we have risen and fallen to some scheme, some proof of superiority. That's where our downfall begins and ends. Trying to prove our superiority. 

Superior is a lake in Ontario. A gold watch. A new car. That's it. Compassion for our species might help come to terms with the idea we are born, we die, then our relatives are born. Maybe we will find new challenges to win but if we don't we should choke on our vulnerability.

Whatever colour your skin may be, whatever the texture of your hair, the clarity of your eyes, your vocabulary, your religion -- you are not obliged to win. Kindness is more than enough. It may reach the lonely souls trying to prove a superiority they cannot possess.

It's okay. We don't have to be superior. Just kind.

Thank You Tyee

 https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/12/01/New-Oilsands-Pipeline/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011225

 I have a feeling that we could fix this world. Particularly if we are not employed by a capitalist company.

This is not because I think capitalism is evil. Or that humanity is to blame even though we cannot blame the bears or birds.

We live in a time when we are "controlled" by habits and have written "reasons" to justify our present condition.

For sure some have more power than others and it's the rich who dictate our policies. Who is to blame? I am. Being one of those who blamed those who have the most power.  While this is not healthy at least I can tell myself it's not my fault.

But this is the beginning of our problem.

Finding someone to blame means I can carry on with my comforting habits. You see I don't know where to start even though I have three children and seven grandchildren. Also I don't have to admit the reason for my lethargy is just finding who is to blame.

Blame is a big commodity. Established business might not spend time trying to find out but they will side with whatever makes them most comfortable.

Disturbing the comfortable is not a sustainable business. So we have found reasons to blame the masses that are furthest from our own habits.

However I am stumped. My youngest daughter pointed out my preaching habits. I know how preachiness can put me off any theory. And theory is not enough. Not sure what the magic key is.

OIL sands and man

 https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/12/01/New-Oilsands-Pipeline/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011225

US LED GLOBAL HEGEMONY

" This October, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth dominated the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, while pressuring Europeans to assume an even heavier share of the defense burden. Referring to his peers as “ministers of war,” Hegseth demanded that member states purchase additional U.S. arms for Ukraine. “All countries need to translate goals into guns,” he hammered home. “That’s all that matters: hard power.”

Truthout: US Led Global Hegemony

Kate Chung Has A Message

 Message from Kate Chung

Why can’t I find any accessible housing in Toronto?
I am doing everything I can to keep myself and my 88-year-old husband safe, writes advocate for Accessible Housing Network.
By Kate Chung

Kate Chung is co-chair of the Accessible Housing Network advocacy group and is an outspoken advocate for older adults seeking to find suitable housing to age in place.

A widening gulf between the cost of rent or mortgage payments and the paycheques of Ontario residents is putting shelter out of reach for many. This housing crisis has hit individuals already disadvantaged much harder. To mark National Housing Day on Nov. 22, Shelter from the Storm, a Metroland news series, explores deepening cracks in the foundation and amplifies the voices of those often left out of the conversation.

I‘m 83 years old. I cannot find any accessible housing in Toronto. Why?

I am doing everything I can to keep myself and my 88-year-old husband safe. What if one of us falls and breaks a hip? Will that spell doom for us? I am terrified of being forced into a long-term “care” jail.
Only seniors, people with disabilities and criminals are locked up in Canada.

StatsCan reports that 27 per cent of Canadians age 15 to 65 have disabilities (28 per cent in Ontario). This does not include older adults.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reports it costs the same to build a new apartment whether it’s accessible or not.

It’s renovations to existing housing which are expensive.

With all the housing being built now, if even half is accessible it will make a tremendous difference to thousands of people. I’m afraid we are missing a unique opportunity to meet the need. If this new housing is not built using universal design, current and future generations will be doomed to suffer in non-accessible housing or be will institutionalized against their will.

Builders lament that they can’t sell the condos they have built. However, clearly they’re not building what people need. Older adults are trapped in inaccessible homes because there are no accessible or adaptable apartments available.

I want the right to choose where I live — staying in my current home or a small co-operative home in my neighbourhood. If I need cleaning help, nourishing food, Personal Support Workers, this must be simple to arrange.

The problem is lack of political will. Politicians argue among themselves, passing the buck from one level of government to another. The federal government has actually said that housing is not in their jurisdiction! The provinces say the National Building Code must change first. Municipalities say the provincial Building Code must change before they can take action. This huge roadblock is due to politicians’ lack of empathy.

All new housing of any kind in Canada should be Universal Design (accessible to people of all ages and abilities.)

This is now the law in Australia and Finland. Canada can do it too.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act, the provincial Human Rights Codes, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol all prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. But this is ignored by every level of government.

Ironically, the benefits of having adaptable universal design housing would save every level of government millions of dollars every year.

Fewer falls

Fewer ambulance calls

Fewer ER visits

Fewer hospitalizations

Reduced need for in-home household and PSW support help

Reduced caregiver burnout

Reduced costs for long-term care facilities. (Many people able to remain in their accessible homes.)

Protection of seniors and persons with disabilities from catastrophes like those in long-term care during the pandemic

Improved mental and physical health Increased employment of people with disabilities
Prevention of costly future renovations. It’s 2025, folks!

found on Facebook

Introducing Rupert Raj's poem Homo Sapiens

Homo unsapiens unsapiens

Doubly unwise, our supposedly superior human species

callously mistreats our beleaguered Earthly planet,

cavierlearly disrespecting our endangered environment

and desecrating our precious natural home.

Why are so many people so eco-unconscientous?

Lording it over all the other diverse species--

millions of animals and thousands of plants,

each of which are intelligent in their own unique way

we humans are collectively guilty of "human supremacy"

Why are most people so anthropocentric?

Of our three evolutionary brains

reptilian, mammalian and human

our devolving species still reacts like reptiles or "lower" mammals

unthinkingly activated by primitive instinct alone.

Why are so many people so uncritical and uncaring?

Driven by excessive greed and selfishness,

and a compulsion to commodify and consume all living organisms--

each of which are sentient beings to differing degrees.

we humans collectively deplete or destroy our natural resources.

Why are most people so materialistic?

Tainted by superstition or extremist religious beliefs

rather than applying objectivity and logical reasoning

and insightful intelligence--secular or intuitive wisdom

a number of our species are exceptionally ignorant and arrogant.

Why are so many people so lacking in vision and humility?

Still evolving as a species for as long as we're on this earth

lets try to stimulate our grey cells to some semblance of wisdom--

instead of short-sighted, mindless "mush for brains",

before we all mutate into robotic androids and cyborgs

programmed by computer generated artificial intelligence!

I am using blogger.com.  Rupert Raj is a writer and thinker. He is a scientist studying life in many of its forms. 

What is a Rapist?

Is it a person who believes ... to be real
he has to act without permission?

to not miss an opportunity?

taking time to think it through
mean he is weak giving his masculinity
his strength his courage
giving it all up to think
think like a prime minister
a priest a rabbi a psychoanalist?
Is he stressed more by uncertainty
than courage more by appearing to be
unsure?

Let me comfort you
trust you are doing the best
you know how
and all those years growing up
really in need of protection
denied while bullies ganged up on you
in the playground
exploring who they were?

No means more than no!
It means we humans have evolved.
Yet haven't created degrees
on masculinity
ways of encouraging the mind
to find peace in empathy
but medicine takes years
to learn at university.

Do I think too much?
Or are humans still trying to be free
knowing that having an answer
to that question would be dangerous
to girls coming into their
adult body.

Is the unwritten ritual
(ganging up on smaller
animals and beating
the shit out of them)
making him a man
or docile support
for patriarchy?

Can We Survive in a World Where Power is Valued More than Life?

Yup this sounds like another sermon on how to save the world. But it's important. How we get through the next 100 years is the most capitalist socialist economic theoretic idea ever invented.

We need to examine and learn how humans survived thousands of years to now. 

Apparently  this can be learned by reading history until WWII. Then we wanted to feel as though we had found a way to win.

It sounds harmless when you think about newspaper articles, schools, rewards for talents. But the second World War was devastating for capital. We couldn't go back to witch hunts and slavery. All that lost its power somehow. With the help of education, Angelou, Orwell, Huxley and all the good female teachers at secondary school. 

Showed us we needed to learn how to live together. Skin colour, wealth, gender, were not as final in our judgement. Except in USA where people with golden brown skin were clearly very smart. White supremacy was looking pretty ugly when MLK revealed his integrity and intelligence and Nice Intelligent Gracious Empathic  Responsible Men were holding down jobs just like white men. How could we justify segregating whites from blacks?

How many eyes watched men hanging from trees and were okay with that? The battle was clearly between power and reason. We were becoming reasonable in ways that indicated brutality of white supremacy. 

Supremacy is a lie. We are children of nature, of the universe and our values. If we value power for power's sake we shall die of shame.

What Is The Real World?

Does it actually exist? Or is it simply the collection of thoughts humans elevate as real. Is it our ego which selects ideas believing they are thinking about "reality"? If so why do humans keep debating reality?

The human ego has built some wonderful things. Health Care, Cars, Trains, Education, Medicine. And we keep arguing over truth and fantasy. Yes we have ego and it's my ego that commands my own choices on how I shall spend my time.  

What is truth?

Dear World and All Creatures

 I LOVE YOU

dear world and all creatures on it, beneath it and above it!

I heard on the radio about the killing on a passenger train. I am not surprised and yes we (humans, animals and fish) are targeted not blamed. The ego that seeks to control the world, to be in charge and demand obedience from everything else has been misinformed then blamed. This when a group of people have been in charge and blames those who are trying to live as well as they can. And by this I don't mean collecting as much stuff as they can.

Why doesn't this work? Because power is not kind. It's just the means to tell the majority of humans to work hard, bring in profit and hoard for a small elite. Meanwhile the world becomes a scary place. Groups of angry egos gather to punish those who are doing well, rich, powerful, well educated people.

No I'm not talking about white men, Jews or any other group who are usually blamed when our world becomes sick.

It is sick now. You just have to listen to the news. A gang today were reported to target people on a train. I don't know who were targeted or how many were harmed, also I am not convinced that sensational news releases are accurate. I suspect that a good business person would know how to print headlines that make us afraid, feel hopeless, powerless and very angry.

Enough is enough! Gather your friends and relatives and let them know.

But having the means to rule the world is a dream this species has used time and again. How to control others may be the urge but it usually ends in violence, war, scapegoating and cruelty. And it doesn't fix anything. Isolated units gather to find a solution.

You might study, economics, health care, religion and magic but we still don't know how to fix the issue of angry hoards desperate to feel their own power to release their rage.

So I just want to say I love you. You don't have to impress me, just be kind to others. I don't expect this to fix anything but I will try to be kind to all souls who feel trapped in this system.

Over and Over Again I Look for Words of Love and Wisdom

 Why is that? Could be because I am lazy or cowardly or weak? I keep asking myself am I doing enough? Is there something I could do to save the world?

The last three words in that question reveals my biggest weakness.

I am looking for a universal fix. This is not a musical or a pantomime.

Knowing how complex my life has been. I recently listened to our children telling me what's wrong with my wishes.

Humans came into this world needing only love and food and acceptance.

I deeply admire heroes like Maya Angelou, Leonard Cohen, and my friend Jane who is no longer on this earth.

I love all the people who have learned wisdom, who can argue for the right and wrong of our time on this planet.

As a child I did not have courage. I kept my thoughts to myself until I knew who I was talking to. When I served the Unitarian Fellowship as a Lay Chaplain, the fit was easy for the first part. Be inclusive, volunteer regularly, respect all members.

Earlier life was not so simple. A common phrase directed at me, was "you'll never amount to anything" which I think was due to being slow, not cleaning up after myself. Not knowing how to fit in to the family. I isolated myself as much as I could because I simply didn't belong here.

I watched TV. It was easy. I learned about the world and my place in it by TV sitcoms. I loved to perform easy things. Poems I learned by heart. Music in the school choir. 

Some people knew I was a daydreamer, allowing myself to fantasize being a sitcom actor, being famous, getting the adulation given to beautiful women who everyone adored. Constantly looking at my appearance, looking for proof that I was special.

Rather than help my mother with washing dishes or dusting furniture, I would enter my dreamworld whenever possible. Study the half hour sitcoms because I couldn't watch dramas that were about real world difficulties.

If you are still with me you might be thinking I was a narcissist. My friend deduced my weakness. My aunts deduced my lack of being anything. Not brave, not smart. The world was too much. I spent the first part of my life fantasizing what I would become. Most people realized I was nothing good or bad. The world was too difficult for me. I frequently walked home from school in tears.

But thankful I was not male. I couldn't fight anyone. Couldn't spend time questioning how the world worked and what my place would be in this. I daydreamed.

Since then other souls came to my rescue even though they didn't know it. Then one day working for community services I heard a person say I had low self esteem. I thought I should grow out of it. That I should be taking care of others not building my own ego. This was a shock because I tried so hard to focus on the needs of others and take myself out of the picture.

Now I see and hear this world of big egos willing to kill, bomb and control this planet and congratulate themselves for being in control.

Phew! Imagine that. High ranking leaders absorbed by their own egos. But then this is patriarchy. Training males to do what they're told, not thinking, just obeying orders.  Where did we go wrong?

Don't get me wrong, I know we depend on the discipline and courage of military personnel from fighter to strategist to firefighters, frontline healers and politicians who work towards safety and healthcare for all. People who make the world safe by caring for people before everything else. 

Turning The Universe Into A Factory

Expressing anger at the US president throwing away a nation. Amurikar with all its knowledge, power, literature, hospitals,  theatres, stories, traditions and its people -- under the bus of power. 

 Meaning the only thing that counts is controlling others, even if not everyone is under control. This apparently is greatness. Control, power, money. Abusing the gender that gives birth trying to establish a world where humanity is simply the line workers providing the consumer and all its parts to this new religion we call THE ECONOMY.

Abusing the workers, staff, nature and intelligence to stop thinking and produce. Anyone who thinks knows this is heading to a universal collapse.

It began in the early centuries. Rulers, Kings, Queens, Explorers, Inventors, Healers, Teachers, Scientists -- anybody besides mothers, were taught to think in terms of greatness. Wealth, capital, science and how to serve the pecking order.  This is so entrenched we think of preservation and justice, as a way to serve power rather than the other way around.

The pecking order is the layers of humanity in terms of how much power we have, now in what we do but what others think of us.  How we look. Beauty, charm, talent, bravery, strength. How we serve those who are the top, how we keep the streets clean of rubbish. Sorry for telling everyone what to think. 

Don't listen to me. But please look around and think about what you see and read and hear.

Last Chance

I won't pretend I have the answer because I don't but these feelings and thoughts keep plagueing me.

It's ridiculously contemptuous to keep replaying the games and thoughts of  oligarchs.  Yes they offer some brilliant ideas, but the focus on other planets as places to conquer just prolongs the mental illness of our species. That illness is attempting to find a solution in man's greatest sin, obsession.

The constant warmongering is the isolated ego competing for the most of what it wants. The ego is shallow and vain. The ego simply wants to win. Like the plans, desires of Donald Trump. He wants to be elevated to a god-like level. Fantasies of grandeur, being worshipped by millions is the driving force for a narcissist. Life itself is much more complex, too complex for our capitalist egos.

We adorn ourselves  within our fantasies first. Do we seek fame or survival? The great man theory is not about emperors, kings or movie stars. Forget queens. Man can dream of being a fearless leader but not the queen, not since the witch hunts.

The Royal Family are confined to DNA, beauty queens are fantasies. We humans need to grow beyond fantasy. We can't be saved by fantasy. We can't be saved by ego. We can't compete for the crown because we don't have a functioning everlasting dream.

A few brave souls can't save the world. We have to all want to save the world even if we are not glorified or honoured. Saving the world is feeding it with what it needs most.

We, they, need to be recognized, nurtured and protected, not by battles, world wars, soccer, or trophy. The trophy we need to win in self respect, nurture, life, peace and love. And this must begin with ego, common sense, wisdom, nurture and an acceptance that we need one another.

Rather than think of great heroes, think mothers and fathers, plump and calm.

 Forget wild contests in huge ships. Think  science of nature, the shit of survival. The love for our lives and all others.

Forget Hitler, Trump or Musk. Think family.

What's Happening To Humanity?

👿👳😡

💙 Are we successfully fitting into the needs of the day, keeping up with trends?

💛  There are more of "us" than there are "them"? How do we identify as "us"?

💛  What are the "us"? People who have the same colour skin?

💜 People who attend the same "church"? People who think alike? 

💙 People who think? People who engage? 

💜 💛 People who wear their identity on their hat? 

💛 How can I be "sure" of "us" and not one of them?

 

Where Are You?

To read the conflicts neatly packaged in small or medium posts, it appears that humanity has lost its way. We, no matter how educated or whose side we are on, are trapped. Palestine or Israel? Jew or Gentile? Woman or Man? White or Black? American or Other? 

But this only represents the opinions of a few who have the privilege of media representation. Articles neatly written with clarity. Who is to blame? Who gets paid? 

Beware of looking at this universe and its inhabitants as proof of reality. Yes it is real. Yes we are real. Yes there are many problems because, well, there are so many of us. Just because we are educated and we have social interests doesn't mean that's all there is?

Just because we don't hear spiders, or deer or full moons doesn't mean their reality is the same as ours. 

We don't know everything! All I know is what I read, hear and see and I know that's not everything, not even most. My opinion is not an authority.

I have lived for 76 years and my world keeps changing in spite of all the experts I read, documentaries, and groups I meet with, radio I listen to, friends who have several degrees, who teach and run needed services. 

I treasure Canadian, British, Modern, old, new poetry, by people who think seriously about the survival of this Universe.

Go out and read anything and everything. Question everything you read and read it again.

Together we could get through this.

To Save This World We Have To Kill The Most?

Being strong is not about learning how to endure. These days, according to capitalism, we have to be the richest, buy the most expensive things like bombs, guns, stylish clothes, fanciest cars. We are told we need the new thing currently being promoted. Of course, we know that's not true. We know that advertisers are selling us gaga economics. They have to do what they are told. 

Do we have to do whatever we are told? Are we worried? Do we feel we are losing the plot? Did the world seem more logical thirty years ago? Or are we fed lies and nonsense to make the world and all its consumers nervous and powerless?

Is our world living on thin ice? Are we supposed to feel powerless?

 

Scrolling through posts

on public media it occurs to me, the way forward is reachable and we are all accountable. We don't have to make millions of dollars, or have the perfect beautiful body or win the wars by killing the most.

We don't have to buy the newest, the best, the shiniest. And if we keep competing for the most we lose sight of our own lives.

Gaining the largest wealth was one way a king or ruler could become famous but without the wisdom of the owner, using wealth for the optimum display, the greatest mansion, the most beautiful queen-- didn't  bring happiness for long. The future was still not guaranteed. Yet, even today this contest still gets the most media attention.

Nonetheless all our intelligence, wisdom and headlines focus on THE WINNER! 

I remember a shallow young girl who believed she had to be a success to make up for her mother's unhappiness trapped in the kitchen trying to keep the house perfect. It sounds silly when I put it like this but this was just after WWII. Her first love was killed in that war and she had a baby to care for, so the "wisdom" of that time was to "get a man" so as not to burden her family.

This girl seemed to be far away and although she didn't make a fuss she wasn't much help. She assumed she would have to become famous to make up for her mother's grief.

For her father's part, he came from a wealthy family where it was expected he would make a lot of money since his family were rich. 

Generally the pressure was on men to be a success by having a spotless home, a beautiful wife and gifted children. The expectation was the drive to success. If you have lots of money you can buy a beautiful house, send your kids to private schools. There were always "buts" that got in the way.

This man found a beautiful wife too, however she didn't want to stay in Europe. She had to move to the USA, be an actor and musician. She also felt the pressure like other survivors of WWII. The problem was she had given birth to a daughter. Eventually they worked out a solution. The wife would stay in the USA and the husband returned to the UK, found a woman who needed a husband. She agreed to look after the baby and he agreed to marry her.

Problem solved? No. There was discomfort, gossip, sensitivity to feeling like outsiders, feeling the gossip that spread faster than wealth. No-one belonged anywhere it seemed.

The daughter was large, clumsy, quiet and dumb. At night when everyone was in bed, the child would start singing. Father shouted to be quiet. She would stop for awhile and then start again.

This is how humans get tangled up in trying to win. There's always something that goes wrong. No matter how much education and wealth a society has, things go wrong. The world will not cooperate with our dreams as aspirations. Not entirely anyway and humans have egos and expectations.

On top of all this there is patriarchy. Training men to win, to be always strong, to avoid thinking too much, to proscribe the future based on what the society needs and when things go wrong, find a scapegoat. Now in this late stage capitalist society, all our expectations stumble on top of one another.

Since women are only valued in how they serve men there is a reluctance to see where the gaps are. How our society keeps punishing the ones with the least power to make changes.

SO HERE WE ARE TAKING UP SPACE

 

on this continent  almost  destroyed by an ideology that idolizes power. 

It's as though we can get all we want by creating rules that keep out humanity. Although we agonize on the effectiveness of systems, we mostly find ways to shut out human needs like safety, food, clean air and hope.

To do this we look for fast effective ways to shut up the majority of people, broadcast the voices of a special few, look for new ways of silencing the emotional needs for hope, home, food, air and social organization for kindness. We breed anxiety, a desire for ways of shutting everyone up.

Please don't look for AI to provide the answer when the most power lives in the imaginations of oligarchic fantasies of personal superiority. We must mend the broken human heart.

It's At Times Like These

... I need to remind myself of all the beautiful things in the world.

First my husband who takes care of me, day and night. He has a positive attitude to weather and bad news.

I haven't got anything to worry about, myself, but human society looks to be falling apart. I have long thought America was a powerful country. It is rich, had many positive developments, and yet its social fabric is falling apart. Why? White Supremacy. Wealthy interests have this need to keep telling us we are under threat by positive things like democracy, warnings of inequality in wealth. Billionaires hoarding money in fear that others will not be manipulated by the glamour of wealth.

The future is not and never has been static. We cannot assume that class will remain influential to all. There are no assurances we won't suffer climate change. There is blame against the people who warn climate change needs to be addressed. 

White Supremacy, male dominance, wealth privilege, are all temporary. Times change, people change, we learn new ways to survive. The King and Queen may have a lot of wealth but the masses are always learning.

Forget the power of Trump, patriarchy and all the banks. Yes they have a lot of power but ordinary people struggling to make ends meet have something else. Love of life.

We have ways of getting information, which is dangerous, untrue and disturbing. Millionaires, schmillionaires! And we invent our future by doing and using our creative intelligence. 

Mary Jane

Thanks for the chocolate cake it was fabulous. Thanks for coming to visit. Thanks for holding on to your beliefs, your kindness and your integrity. 

The Politics of Democracy Works Only When We Engage

 So much news about survival and politics these days. The commentary often include predictions on what the powerful will do and how we, the victims can fight back but fighting is so harmful. Do we want to keep looking over our shoulder debating alternatives, summing up our chances of winning? Do we really want to see this planet as a commodity to win? Furthermore do we want to see our relationships as win or lose games? My wins depend on your losses. It feels like carrying weapons responsibly.

But aren't we missing the point if winning is the only game? It seems to me we are part of the solution. We are not living in a win or lose world. We live with uncertainty. Jesus of Nazareth created feasts of hope not live or die, not a competition, if I believe the bible is true. But Jesus is not available for conversations. Since then we have learned from Martin Luther King, Mary Oliver, Carl Jung, Simone de Bouvoir and others who try to reach us.

How to save the world from despair

We know those who gain power are inclined to be addicted, egotistic, self serving, and learn to play the game that only values themselves, not the public good, and no matter how hard they try to win we (the entire planet and all its creatures) are not going to benefit. Who benefits? The narcissist, the rich and the beautiful, the special ones who have learned how to rise to the top and how to stay there.

It's a sad game. The stage for the ego obsessed, where we learn that working for the greater good is never the winner. The game is about power, gaining it, keeping it and to hell with everything else. We also know we are racing our way to obliteration. It might be in a year. It might be a decade or a century. Whatever we do know humanity has sold its soul and anyone who speaks seriously will be dismissed as naive.

One of the problems is, history itself, and another is the dismissal of longer serving, higher ideals.

I read Carl Jung, Chris Hedges, Maya Angelou, Robert Reich and those who write from the heart with sincerity and integrity. I am attracted to those who claim we must serve the greater good, the life and health of humanity, with care and dedication to preservation of the health and well being of all creatures.

To give in to despair is to hope you and your loved ones will not be subjected to the pain at the end. The sickness of ego without integrity.

I ask you, dear reader, to think about how to give something of worth to the future, not money, not liked posts, but your unspoken promise. We don't need to know what you give, we need to know how we all could work towards the future when a tract of land, sky and sea, is not treated like a dollar. We, live and die, unknown, even if we have given this world the precious gift of love and hope.

Chris Hedges on Shakespeare

 There is scant evidence that William Shakespeare authored the plays and sonnets attributed to him. But questioning the authorship is an unacceptable heresy among Shakespearean scholars who liken it to believing the moon landing was faked. These scholars have built their academic careers on the foundations of the Shakespearean myth, writing long biographies that are almost all based on hypothesis and conjecture. They are the guardians of the one true church, and like grand inquisitors arrogantly dismiss intriguing arguments to be made for other authors including Edward de Vere, the 17th earl of Oxford, Christopher Marlowe, Mary Sidney, Francis Bacon,  and others. Or perhaps, like the King James Bible, published in 1611 after several years of work by a committee of 47 scholars and clergymen, the plays were a collaborative effort by several talented writers and poets. Even the most adamant defenders of Shakespearean authorship concede that some of the plays attributed to him, such as Pericles, contain the work of other authors. What is not in dispute is that even raising this issue is a literary taboo. But this is not an idle question, for a writer’s past and experience illuminates his or her work, despite what the post-modernists preach. The Shakespeare narrative fits perhaps too neatly into popular mythology – the story of a poorly educated glover’s son who arrives in London from a rural village and conquers the stage and writes the most immortal verse in the English language. Joining me to discuss the debate is Elizabeth Winkler author of “Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature.”

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-show-with-cc6?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Women and the survival of life on this planet

 

Many years ago when I was about 12 or 13 I witnessed an event that disturbed me.

A girl in my class had some possessions in a bag and one was something soft wrapped in a brown paper bag. A boy in this class found the bag that had a clean sanitary napkin,  he took it from her bag and threw it across the class to another boy. They laughed and threw it to another boy and then another boy. The girl went red as if she was embarrassed.

Now the thing to remember is she displayed shame as if it was her fault. Logically this makes no sense the pad was a function of nature. It was in her bag and had nothing to do with anyone else in the class. But when one boy picked it up out of her bag. He made a display of power. 

This is how power works. A number of things display human ignorance about this power. Take pregnancy for example. It is a fact of life but when a woman gets pregnant the man is congratulated and the woman is shamed. No-one talks about desire, the need for money to buy food and shelter.

In fact there is the hint that anything a man can do to a woman is good for him and a shame for her. A woman, unmarried who gets pregnant is often seen as something to be ashamed of. Even the young girls used as sex objects are seen as having been shamed (conquered). We know women rarely if ever brag about being raped, having sex or even sexual desire.

These events are meant to be a triumph for the male and shame for the female. I feel that our society trains us to see women as burdens, weak, problematic, and males as conquerors.

What does that leave males with in terms of achievement? Any power over another is congratulated as a triumph. Kicking a ball into the net, climbing a mountain, making a lot of money for a business. Stealing power from other organizations, inventing ways of winning. The goal of any man is to win, a trial, money, wealth, territory, war. 

Men raised with the expectation they must prove themselves as winners does not inspire nurture. In fact its more likely to dismiss work that heals or nurtures as effeminate and so the "most powerful nation" in the world is the one who inspires fear in others.

Yet women who have shown ability to be good leaders are not praised, do not earn the same money as males. Women who have the ability to create places of harmony are not applauded. The reality is care and kindness benefits all.

Women who work on this are intelligent and beautiful in many ways. MLK junior the African American who inspired thousands of people should never be forgotten but the contempt expressed by some billionaires toward social activists reveals a deep meanness that is destructive for humanity. And could lead to the end of life on this planet.

Caterpillar and the Butterfly

 We all know what happens to the caterpillar when it sheds its skin becomes a cocoon and then emerges as a butterfly. It must be very traumatic and scary for the caterpillar. If it could talk it would scream as the cocoon cripples its body. Does the cocoon become fully blessed as a butterfly? Or is it even more scary when it relies on the fragility of its wings to carry it to the next branch?

The caterpillar doesn't get to choose does it? But humanity can choose to open itself to a better future for all. To accept we have different features, different histories and different beliefs.

Those Who Care

 The only reason I am still here is because of those who care. By this I mean people who care about other people, the survival of humanity. We who feel emotion and who love other people, love life, love hearing what others think. I call this THOSE WHO CARE or THC's.

Today a friend came to fix some things in the garden, my husband made lunch, Debbie organized the women's group where four of us joined on zoom, and a local woman came to give us a pedicure. One man guided my wheelchair into the room where I could link. After that gathering I had a nap and when I woke up it occurred to me the only reason we still live on this planet is because of those who care, who reach out and organize a meeting, who come to the house to fix small things in the garden, who prepare food, who wash up dishes then plan supper.

These people are not millionaires, famous or even talking about saving the world. They just care about others. I call them PWC's. Some care about hospitals, the economy, education, or social issues.

People who have a sense that there's more to life THAN ME. People who spend time thinking about what's happening in this world we live in. There are big arguments about what is right and what is wrong, but in the end, it boils down to me and you, them and us.

Yes we have problems trying to get along with one another but in the end it comes down to seeing others, hearing them, and caring about them.

I know there are these sophisticated arguments about who should be here and who shouldn't, good beliefs, harmful beliefs, good people and bad people, policing, schooling, driving, healing. It's too much. We have created other 

problems by looking at the larger picture. Training people to write with their right hand, to learn science, sociology, truth, lies. Then we wonder if we have the right colour skin, the right beliefs, the right clothes, the right education.

We are trapped in a bid of who deserves to be here and who doesn't. So we never get to caring for each other. But we must start with that no matter what your IQ or bank account says.

We must care about life and the health of others.

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