Truth. Where are you? Feed my mind. Guide my soul

There is a road. It waits for you. It loves life. Not pretend life where we are expected to belief things based on the power of one mind. Or even the power of wealth and influence.

Go back to your childhood. Or to a time when you thought your life was coming to an end. Back to when you were scared and someone came to comfort you.

The Envelope Lickers

 

Because I was born in a hierarchical nation where everyone was known to be in a class -- the very bottom were homeless, then general workers like sweepers and cleaners, washerwomen and prostitutes, engine drivers, street sweepers, I see current social/political affairs as attempting to rate the worth of humans like leaders in established societies. Individuals who will or may be very useful to the king or ruler.

Henry 6th took the enthusiastic intelligence of brave women expressing themselves as though it would benefit society, only benefit was what benefited him. Calling these women witches enabled him to kill off women. Women were born to bring babies into the world. They were uneducated in the general sense. At least that was the thinking, however the reality was people were self taught and so would have to keep silent. Everyone had their place and should not reach above the roles given to them. Religion was used to keep people in their place.

We could change this but it would take a while before people would see others as worth and respect what they don't know. We could see life, ours and others, as a mystery. We could admit that we can't see the future entirely. We could walk among neighbours, friends and family as vibrant and alive, and love them for it.

We could stop seeing others in a hierarchy of value based on the tradition of patriarchy and love those who have power but are starved of emotional support. EM has a future regardless of whether we see it or not. She has personal proof of how power makes humanity seem stupid. Hopefully she is loved by family and friends.

You'll Never Amount To Anything

 

Everything I know

came to me from somewhere

I can't remember

where or who

some things I recall

are from famous people

but its not fame

that made it

not wealth

so when I add my name

to a poem or a letter

I cannot say I created it.

Everything come from somewhere

other than my own mind

even if the words moved me

to write them in one place.

After hearing the words

"you'll never amount to anything"

I thought I would amount to

the voice of grief

then cross out the words

that hurt that are harsh

loud to dominate the moment

then soon realized it was impossible

and the older I got the more I learned

I didn't have to amount to anything

beyond kind, caring and human.

 

LIFE IN INTERESTING TIMES

when the world is not easy to read

and the news is alarming

and when you think you can respond

but there is another post

even more disturbing

what can you do?

after glancing at the plants

in your garden

remember

even a flower takes more than one day

to bloom

not apologizing for all the sad things

she opens up delicately

colours deep purple

pink or orange

each petal so thin yet bright

does not threaten

other plants or compare

her strength her size or colour

with other petals

she just opens up

like a goddess

and we love her

don't we? 

How Can We Heal The Broken?

 

We live in a troubled world. It's not kindness that is rewarded in our society, it's winning.

Starting at the beginning of patriarchy where men were trained to kill in war, it became a trend to value men who didn't think or feel much. They are trained to dismiss feelings like warnings that you might have an accident if you drink and drive. Never mind all the arguments, the laws, the training, the rewards. Movies, books and TV programs revolve around action, conflict and resolution within an hour or less.

I remember desperately trying to please relatives, teachers, adults and friends. At first I thought this could be achieved by being kind, listening, caring. Then I tried getting high marks at school. Throughout my life I tried to be nice, worthy of friends, liked. 

Eventually I could see how this society worked. It didn't value good or nice. It valued winning, being special, fast, rich or beautiful. Now in my 70's I still find it difficult to watch self centred people do cruel things and get applause for that. But then I'm a woman and was raised to be a nurturer while men are raised to dismiss their feelings and strive to win ... whatever, a race, a war.  Thoughts about kindness making us thoughtful about what happens to all in our world, is not only overwhelming, for men, its a waste of their time, unless they are sensitive.

Concern for others has to be allowed for men to show their feelings. So a driver, a repeat offender, has drinks with his pals before getting in his car to drive home. There are few classes or encouragement for men to examine or question their feelings. Now, we, society express disdain for men who kill others by being drunk and driving. I can hear his friends trying to comfort him as he feels terrible for killing someone in an accident but valued for killing thousands on a battle field.

In war men are trained to kill the enemy but life is not easy. It's not as though it's a chess game. Or any other than the millions of games where there needs to be a winner among the losers. In this "civilized" society we are raised to believe our worth depends on physical strength, colour of skin, size, intelligence and gender.

A man who develops empathy is at risk for being dismissed as effeminate. America is very good at winning contests, wealth, wars and the status of "the greatest" in the world.

We enter the foggy world of human attitudes, humans who have been trained to hate some and applaud others depending on how useful they are in holding up the values of their society. A popular or successful man loses a few points in the world of inarticulate worth according to the popularity game.

Not many white men will worry about the family of those broken bones and will not feel the pain. Feelings of guilt will only hurt those who have a conscience, a moral compass. Hitler was never loved by his father and mothers are merely women. 

We are trapped in capitalist misogyny where you cannot win without hurting others. Yet winning doesn't give you comfort forever. Also we cannot afford the emotions to save our world. 

AND IN THE END WE’LL KNOW

Betrayed but never trumped 

there was never the test all could reply to 

we worked

we sang

we shouted

wrote letters to the editor

we voted

but

nothing worked

the guilty never

apologised

they got their staff

to express

what they themselves

could not admit

snickering in the game room

priding themselves

on winning the game

whatever and whenever

they are not the rich

not the privileged

not the prized

or prettiest

not the ones who spoke

on stages

in white shirts

not the factory owners

the doctors or the winners

at soccer or hockey

or chocolate factory owners

not even Scrooge

not those we wrote about

in great adventures

putting their lives at risk

trying to control the monster

not the handsome movie star

the tap dancer

or composer of symphonies

these are not to blame

entirely

they are the ones

who wrote the patriarchy

and blamed the witches

those who built muscle

on misogyny

who claimed every voice

a lie if it didn’t praise

the war against the mystery

of life.

From Religion to Compassion

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ7IAhLLw28

Misogyny And Mental Health

 

Would it be trite to say hate is the seed for violence?

Who do you hate?

Men? Women? Children? Animals?

Does the colour of your flesh

dictate your mental health?

Did you spend ten years

in a classroom

with your arm raised

until it ached

because your teacher refused to acknowledge you?

Was that teacher a woman?

Did your tight lipped teacher

sound authoritarian?

Were the male teachers relaxed

made jokes

loved getting laughs

as though he needed you

to like him?

Were your feelings

generally the same throughout

your school life?

Was your mother loving

was your father too busy to bother

with you

or

did you learn that a woman's voice

was simply a temporary

thing to endure?

soon you would go to college

where all the teachers were male

who dismissed the ideas

of female students?

Did you pick up the deep tones

of prime ministers

their short rebuffs

the attitude of ridicule?

Did the dulset tones of authority

make you feel

as though you were rising up

to the adult world?

Was there a time in your life

where it seemed

masculine was natural

and feminine temporary?

Or did you just seek the truth?

The Big Beautiful Mind

Asks how can we fix the traumas that headline every morning. We live in a world where bad news is posted more than good.  It's like guns. We pay attention to violence and the threat of violence. America has claimed the bully pulpit of the world.  It's greatness depends on how many people it can hurt, how much control it has over the survival of humanity.

Who is 'humanity?'

The habits and needs of one species which also includes its needs for food, air, and water.

In patriarchy it seems to stop there as we are told we are isolated units competing for earth's resources. In "Uhmurika" these are what we compete for and the ones who have easy access to these needs have money and guns.

Normal folk have what they need. At least that's how the myth works. Those who have money have worked for it. Those who don't are lazy.

THAT'S A LIE. THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE MONEY ARE EXPECTED TO WORK FOR A PITTANCE, SLEEP IN DOORWAYS, BEG FOR CHANGE.

But wherever they go the public calls for their removal. It doesn't look good for the country to see a mob of homeless souls. It doesn't look for society to see people going hungry. It causes problems like 'what sort of civilization allows for some to earn billions while the majority don't have a home. What kind of special is the billionaire class? Look it up. Check statistics. Sign up for Democracy Now!

Are you still with me? Or did you have to have breakfast first?

I am preaching and its not the best way to reach others.

Begin Again

Each day I wake and worry about where our species are heading.

My days are filled with listening to podcasts, radio shows, articles on the human condition. In the background is the sound of the dryer pushing clothes around and around. Sometimes I hear  birds chirping or arguing with one another. 

But all we have is our ability to judge and as long as we can admit we do not have the key to truth we have the responsibility to work from what appears to be true after we have read and thought about what's happening.

The notion that we cannot know anything is worse for our health than the notion we know everything. We plod along questioning and thinking, comparing headlines with news reports. We have the ability to judge when someone has distorted the truth for their own benefit, but it is just a judgement.

Some of us are better than others but we are not holders of the only truth. Who benefits? We all do.

Every age has its dangers. People like Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated their lives to the greater good even while they are imperfect. Finding truth is the task we all have to do.

Better Than Nothing? Eh?

 

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/06/19/Influencers-Conservative-Politicians-Misogyny/?utm_source=weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=230625&utm_term=builder

Misogyny is more than hatred for women. It's in fact hatred for vulnerability in ourselves and those we rely on.

Men have been traumatized to believe they must be strong, choose the right response fast, avoid second guessing and compassion because it asks you to think too much.

What happens if we are led to believe by an authority that's hard to dismiss, we are isolated units competing for the most of what each of us wants. 

We choose entertainment about men defending the frontier, willing to kill anyone who might be a threat. To even think about social justice and peace makes us strangers to this land. We have created the warmonger hero and called him God. He is very useful. He can fix cars, save those who are drowning, narrow down the future to win or lose, strong or weak. We are choosing to destroy this planet and all its inhabitants. 

Trump, Hitler, Mussolini, have been created by patriarchy. Silence the doubt, the questions like where did we go wrong? Read Hannah Arendt, Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, read poets, The Talmud, the Bible, John Lennon -- be afraid but not frozen. The winner is dead.

Money is power, war is god

 

Once upon a time there was a planet called earth. It was small but beautiful. Full of trees, air, rain, wind and climate which supported life. Thousands of years of humanity, patriarchy, civilization and science by 2025 we (thinkers) loved power more than anything else. We had destroyed our future not just by our habits but our religions like capitalism.

Humans had become so vain they focused on how they looked, what they owned and where they stood on their inherited pecking order. When I began working as a clerk typist, a friendly man wanted to help me. He said its all about the pecking order and where you sit on that. It was a large engineering company, most people were politely kind. This meant to me, we are civilized.

What I couldn't see was the effort it took to civilize our world. As years passed I learned the pecking order has no morals. Capitalism was organized by the principles of the economy. But I believed we were becoming civilized because we moved away from glorifying the wealthy and powerful and talked about serving the greater good.

I believed we knew too much to allow Hitler or Mussolini to bring back authoritarian rule. We were calmed by advertising and the use of the idea of "we". America was very powerful even more than Great Britain. The power was in the money though and I didn't see capitalism as having the will to control everything. I had swallowed the idea that democracy was here and safe. We had learned to get along as a member of the greater good.

I read some of Carl Jung, and other wise people whose ideas were stacked safely in the local library. I went to church and listened to a man preach on Genesis. I was pregnant with my first baby then. The man was a bishop and he quoted the story of eve and how women will always suffer in childbirth because Eve disobeyed the "Lord".

This was a new perspective for me. I thought mothers were revered because they incubated the embryo that would become civilization. I saw it as a sign of honour not punishment. So then I left the Anglican church which I had always thought as advanced in its theories.

Fifty years later, having joined the Unitarian fellowship I was aware that power was available to us all if we lived in peace and love. And I learned things I didn't want to learn.

Patriarchy is a constant influence.

The Collapse of American Empire - YouTube

 https://youtu.be/4RfKnQBvXF4?si=DczzI4uI1v8BQrx0

by Noam Chomsky

Alex Neve - Our Failure to Provide Universal Human Rights

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/masseys-2025-announce-alex-neve-1.7553810?cmp=newsletter_CBC%20Books_14559_1947582 

To Alex Neve, the core promise behind human rights is that they are applied universally: to everyone, everywhere, at all times, without exception.

But in this year's Massey Lectures, he argues that while universality is the noblest promise we can afford our fellow human beings, it's also the area where we have most gravely failed.

"I think everyone would acknowledge and recognize we live in a world where human rights are not at all delivered and enjoyed universally. So it gives us a chance to explore what the promise is all about, but also where we have come up so terribly short," Neve told IDEAS' Tom Howell.

Concentration Camps

https://scheerpost.com/2025/06/15/chris-hedges-american-concentration-camps-read-by-eunice-wong/ 

Fascism is ultimately designed to rid the world of humanity and replace it with traumatized zombies, tortured to empty their minds of thought,  feeling and loving kindness.

It replaces humanity with a false hierarchy, not one of talent and achievement but of messaging that clears the mind of thought.

Read Hedges, Chomsky, Arrendt, History and all thoughtful commentaries.

Imagine the entire world without humanity. At first you might think wild animals are better than fascists. But we have a serious job to do. Judge our society not for bad people but for why people are harmed. The reason behind concentration camps is not for saving society but for replacing it with zombies.

Saving The World -- No Really!

I am a mother, wife, poet and Canadian citizen. Our family came to Canada in 1965. Coming from the UK there were many things to learn, one being the phrase in England we do ..... this ... is not relevant according to many of the people I spoke to. Admittedly I was only 16 at the time and I fancied myself as commentator having an opinion on everything. Even today whenever I have a theory of anything, it is with humour and ......... 

Who do I think I am? Doesn't matter. 

Really I am aware that when I express my opinion on anything. It is possibly/probably annoying. However I am concerned like an old lady with white hair. 

How then can I approach the topic of saving the world when great commenters such as Suzuki, Atwood, and other famous people convey they're learning on the topic while we kiss the feet of billionaires. OK maybe not the feet and yes many celebrities are wise and thoughtful. So why would an unknown granny with no doctorate be considered as an expert on such an important topic.

First of all I am not an expert or influencer. Ordained by media,  o-one has ever thought that of someone who hasn't got the doctorate or fame. Most of us stay quiet until we are at a dinner party or community meeting. There is an argument to say let's keep our opinions to ourselves, smile and say hello how are you? But opinions do nevertheless exist and influence our society.

Then there are the endless letters sent to media outlets. So why would I add to something so bullishly as saving the world. We have in our world huge religious spaces where we can go and get some deep thoughts and inspiration.

So why do we have huge threats to our future? We are locked into a world where power is the dominant force paid for by billions of dollars. While wealth is admirable it doesn't favour saving anything, not even the world we live in. 

Then there is science, knowledge, print and sound. So what is missing here? Nothing, in fact there is too much. We are talking on top of each other or keeping it in where it sours inside us, making us redundant. We are blah unless we have a special designation. Even Kings don't preach anymore.

It's sobering but the wisdom that has guided us through many centuries has been  muted. Yes there are gifted wise people crushed into sound bites because any advice has already been said by many voices.

But rather than list all my ideas here please don't give up on your greatest wealth -- the ability to feel compassion enough to drown the cynicism. Most of what we do is civilizing even though we don't get paid for it. Why do we get married, have children, learn a skill and get a job?

Chris Hedges on the loss of goodness

In “Hitler and the Germans,” the political philosopher Eric Voegelin dismisses the idea that Hitler — gifted in oratory and political opportunism, but poorly educated and vulgar — mesmerized and seduced the German people. The Germans, he writes, supported Hitler and the “grotesque, marginal figures,” surrounding him because he embodied the pathologies of a diseased society, one beset by economic collapse and hopelessness. Voegelin defines stupidity as a “loss of reality.” The loss of reality means a “stupid” person cannot “rightly orient his action in the world, in which he lives.” The demagogue, who is always an idiote, is not a freak or social mutation. The demagogue expresses the society’s zeitgeist, its collective departure from a rational world of verifiable fact. The Chris Hedges Report <chrishedges@substack.com>

Palestine / Israel

The All-Palestine Protectorate (Arabic: محمية عموم فلسطين), also known as All-Palestine

The All-Palestine Protectorate (Arabic: محمية عموم فلسطين), also known as All-Palestine, the Gaza Protectorate or the Gaza Strip, was a short-lived client state with limited recognition, corresponding to the area of the modern Gaza Strip, that was established in the area captured by the Kingdom of Egypt during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and allowed to run as a protectorate under the All-Palestine Government. The Protectorate was declared on 22 September 1948 in Gaza City, and the All-Palestine Government was formed. The President of the Gaza-seated administration was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, while the Prime Minister was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha.[2] In December 1948, just three months after the declaration, the All-Palestine Government was relocated to Cairo and was never allowed to return to Gaza, making it a government in exile. With a further resolution of the Arab League to put the Gaza Strip under the official protection of Egypt in 1952, the All-Palestine Government was gradually stripped of its authority. In 1953, the government was nominally dissolved, though the Palestinian Prime Minister, Hilmi Pasha, continued to attend Arab League meetings on its behalf.[5] In 1959, the protectorate was de jure merged into the United Arab Republic, while de facto turning Gaza into a military occupation area of Egypt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Palestine_Protectorate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz_OBHCdtDQ History of antisemitism in Europe.

Life Is Not A Game

Animals, Plants, People -- are not playthings. Life is not a game to win or lose. Listening to the radio, watching TV, listening to political leaders -- it is easy to hear and see the actions of humanity dumbed down to a game. Listening to recordings of soccer or some other popular sport I find it easy to forget the meaning of life, to think of our days and something to win. It is easy to get wrapped up in whatever is broadcast on radio or TV until you learn of children being killed so an ambitious ego can win a war. Sometimes you mention very sad events and you'll hear a friend say "you take life too seriously!"

This is another way of reminding us the purpose of our world is to shrink life into a game. Accumulating more wealth than you'll have time to spend. Television and radio programs that trivialize humanity and their struggles. Keeping it light and entertaining. Yes, while tuning in to TV and Radio, you cannot avoid the trivialization of life and feel you are expected to not take anything seriously. Life as entertainment.

But you also have to go to work to earn money to pay rent or mortgage and there are places and people who are not fun to be around. Your children may suffer bullying at school. Your teacher may be overcome with frustration. People who try to perform with integrity find the world going mad around them.

How can you move forward when it feels like the office is a torture chamber? How can you advise your children when they are bullied? How can you protect the vulnerable when you feel like sitting down and crying?

The answer seems trite. Be honourable, kind and treat others as you would like to be treated. I have no advice to offer beyond the classic stories of the last 100 years. Scrooge, Heidi, Star Wars! All you can do is keep an open mind and heart for compassion and empathy. Be honest, love yourself, love life, choose justice and fairness. 
 

Drink The Poison

 

Reality Is Poison

It was after giving birth to three

I realized this was a torture chamber

try to correct the cruelty of our society

and you shall be punished.

Try to ignore it

and you shall go mad.

There are beautiful moments

where you will be celebrated

even if it is kept under a table.

We have learned that perpetrators of rape

are celebrated by ridiculing the raped

until we realize the jungle is where it all began.

If you write about the injustice

you shall be accused

of something

lying, hatred, seeking attention

hating men.

This is why there is no empathy

anywhere and why any criticism of

working class, women, children

dogs, cats and butterflies

is wiped clean off the board

why power has become

the only thing we fight for

dismissing all the colours

in the crayon box

and why we destroy our home

this universe

trying to put it right.

Janet Vickers

Back To Reason (thoughts are free)

 

Humanity has the gift of questioning how or why we choose what we choose.  Of course we are born into a society that has already been destroyed so how can we overcome that?

History has shown some brilliant minds even though our society constructed a broken tendency to create new worlds by destroying old worlds.

How can we survive when we keep killing good people?

Every generation has swallowed the myth that a new world can be created by trashing the one we are in.

I want to look back to the beginning of Palestine.

"In 1947, against a backdrop of growing violence between Jews and Arabs - and against British rule - the United Nations (UN) voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states. Jerusalem would become an international city." https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396

Born and raised in Britain I have found that history has been polished to make it look like Britain is the greatest country in this world, but I also understand every nation believes they are the greatest in the world because British children are taught that. And since WWII most teachers and medical doctors were Jewish (Palestinian) refugees from Hitlers' murderous holocaust. Great writers, male and female have often been from Palestinian stock.

America, the most powerful nation on this planet, has created the sentiment of wealth over virtue, and most people who can, focus of getting rich and have found success bullying other nations into submission. This is not good for the future. Humanity is at risk of creating more Hitler's who want to murder all who don't seek power first and last.

The greatest flaw in this goal is the silencing of women. Look at how Syria treats their women? Look at how the current government speaks of women? Look at how Hitler treated women?  Read the novels written since WWII. Fantasies of a world that creates their own babies without the help of women.

Read the Handmaids Tale (Atwood), read Maya Angelou, read the early history of Palestine. The cries of humanity are the people who lost hope in constant war and the meddling of other nations disrupting the process of each country as it tries to find peace in their world.

A Planet Trapped by One Species

Whenever I listen to news I feel like our species is on its way out. Not because we have no power but because we have built societies that abuse power to the end.

By this I mean Henry VIII murdered his best friends. Sure he viewed them not as friends but servants. People to use as his will dictated. Wives he no longer wanted, friends he no longer felt useful. It was a way to build a society of fear so all would do as he wished. People were to be used until they were most useful, beheaded, to remind the populace the power of the realm was to be feared. Not loved.

Nations run through fear and violence, not wisdom.

Now as we watch the politics of our neighbour to the south. We see and feel a world of distrust trading in wisdom and knowledge for the political return of the Roman Empire. Brutality, fear and cruelty to put every living thing in a state of panic wondering what the future will be. Another World War and end of our planet? 

Who will replace Jesus on the Cross? Who will be hung as "witches"? Who will dare to turn our politics into a disciplined science? How will we convince bandits, bullies and murderers to be civilized, not afraid, Police, Lawmakers, teachers and parents, to honour kindness and civilized justice? How will we find peace to replace fear? How will be take care of the life we share on this planet?

Apart from the misery we create, how can we nurture the good things like clean water, fresh air? How can we keep civilization progressing?