Thank You Danielle - there is hope yet

 https://daniellemoodie.substack.com/p/the-cost-of-hubris-how-exceptionalism?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=3059853&post_id=191494973&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=pwb38&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

You Possess A Rare and Beautiful Gift

 No I am not about to get slushy or fill this page with sweet thoughts.

I was raised to believe I would never amount to anything. I was once a lay chaplain in the Unitarian Universalist church. Before that I became a wife and soon after that, a mother. I am now convinced that living a loving and responsible life is the reason. 

The people who said I would never amount to anything were mothers and housewives. My own mother believed our power was in the things we did and believed. My mother was also a singer, a dancer, a cook and housekeeper.  

She raised four children, loved and respected family but never spoke about her values. She relied on "feminine mystique" and was loved by many but the word LOVED was never used. 

In Britain at that time people did not use gushing words. This was England where many lost their lives or loved ones during WWII.'

I can hear one of my three children sigh. Because my writing is "preachy". I love all my children and grandchildren. They are part of my family who remind me that life matters. More than that, they are smarter than me.

I love the people who care about health, my mental health, the people who keep the Nanaimo Unitarian Fellowship going and the doctors and nurses who care about my health. I love the Jewish people, the Christian people, the gardeners, the tree trimmers, the producers of vegetables and TV programs. I love the neighbours who visit when my husband has to do his duties around the home and garden.

I love the people who have offered to take me to the synagogue when they were going. I love the mechanics who fix things. I love the neighbours who let me know when they are going shopping in case I need a lift. I love the woman who visits the tree in my back yard and trims it each year, the family who fix other broken things. 

This is a long-winded way of saying I love humanity.

Flowers or Man

I thought I would write another poem here.

But I did this instead

 

In all the media coverage that entered my computer

I think about a photo of Greta Thunburg

with an ad on top of that

saying she is struggling with her health

surrounded by advertising for things you can buy.

This is not the first time I have compared

life to the images bought and paid for

by corporations selling their products.

How are we? What will tomorrow bring?

You may think this is a blank space but I think it is an opportunity to write some words down to remind all of us who we are.

Who are you?

How do you feel about the state of this world? How do you feel about your family? Are they doing okay? 

What if I told you your purpose, your life, is yet to start?

You are here to bring humanity back to life.

To stop judging others, the news headlines, the "rulers" and "leaders".

Yes we all have  a problem. This world is a mess. Men who think they are ordained to lead us, to fix the problems.

No I can't tell you who you are or why you are here. I have been scanning opinions all over this computer and I don't know what the answer is.

For centuries we have told ourselves to think. Get it right. What is the problem?

Is it anti-semitism? Misogyny? Greed? Capitalism? Fear? Poverty? 

I think it is the endless competitions to win. We can't just live our lives. We must leave the world a better place than we found it.

It is the endless arguments that fill up our heads.

What do I have to do to prove .... stop!

You do not have to prove anything. You have to live your life?

I'm not the expert I think I should be!

I'm not special in a fantastic way.

I am special in a quiet thoughtful way but not more special than you.

Yes you are special.

Every raindrop is special.

How do I know that? I feel it.

Feel you ask?

How do you know, how can you prove.

I am not here to prove, I am here to help humanity see its worth.

No this is not self aggrandizing. I am not special any more than all other living things.

How do I know I'm special then?

We are all special. Even Donald Trump!

What way am I useful? What can I offer this world? How can I save it from nuclear war? From egocentric "leaders". 

This planet is at risk of being destroyed by egocentric egos.

What can I do about that? Who can I influence to not do any harm?

Human history is plagued by egos believing its their duty to teach us a lesson?

How do we influence men who are a threat to our planet? We are still fighting against "the jews", "the Catholics", the "Oligarchs" and the warriors dreaming about how to save the world by controlling it.

For centuries humans have dreamt about how to save this planet with its critters fighting for food and shelter.

We invented "the jews" as a problem that we must "deal" with. Even though they are smarter than us.

But we have an imagination that keeps us awake at night imagining what they may do to us sometime in the future. This is antisemitic. And so it is antisemitism keeping us awake.

Or people of colour who are loved and successful.

Or our children when they grow up and no longer need our protection. Or our neighbours who might be suffering and secretly scheming to take something of ours away? Or an ex who is still angry about leaving. Domestic violence is on the rise we are told?

Feminists? Neighbours? Christians? Transgender people? Strangers? Immigrants?

Just how safe are we? 

No-one can tell me the day and time my life will end. What should I do?

Without Emotions to Balance Our Fears

 We shall use our thoughts carelessly.

We can imagine all sorts of cruel scandals invented by The Other. There's enough there to keep us talking for days. We have a long history from the Romans to the Nazi's.

IS THE WORLD DISINTEGRATING INTO CHAOS?

Or is it just the human mind?

Is our world becoming chaos? Or is it our human ego?

Does it seem like the news is a tight list of everything going wrong? Can humans be blamed for this? Are we so fixated on our own interests, we cannot understand the world any more?

The newspapers write as though climate change, weather, the economy, the planets, are all here to serve us? 

Or, is it, those who follow astronomy and the daily news, see the world as something we own and therefore it should take care of us?

Are we trapped in a patriarchal pattern where man is king and everything else is here to serve him?

What are our major fears? 

Can we do anything about climate change? Can we teach our brothers and sisters to be unpaid servants to our interests?

Do we cry? Or have our tears dried up?

Does fear or anxiety make things worse? Do we harm our world by worrying about ourselves?

Is it possible for humanity to see the universe as something we should take care of?

Mostly when life on this planet seems to be in danger it's when humanity gets so scared it seeks to kill everything to "prove"  we are in charge?

Can we put our arms around everyone we meet to help bring the anxiety level down?

How can love save us when most people are not in our town?

Tumbler Ridge and the disintegration of justice - thoughts from Robert Reich

from  Robert Reich

 Friends,

The neofascist takeover of America — of our cities, universities, media, law firms, museums, civil service, and public prosecutors who tried to hold Trump and Trump’s vigilantes accountable to the law — worsens by the day. 

As I’ve traveled across the country peddling my book, trying to explain how this catastrophe happened and what we can do about it, I’ve found many Americans in shock and outrage.

“How could it have happened so fast?” they ask. I explain that it actually occurred slowly and incrementally over many years until our entire political-economic system became so fragile that a sociopathic demagogue could bring much of it down. 

Some people I speak with are still in denial and disbelief. “It’s not as bad as the press makes it out to be,” they say. I tell them that it is — even worse. 

Others are in despair — heartbroken and immobilized. “Nothing can be done,” they say. I tell them that hopelessness plays into the hands of Trump and his lackeys who want us to think that the game is over and they’ve won. But we can’t let them. The stakes are too high. Hopelessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy. 

Rest assured. The seeds of Trump’s destruction have already been sown. He will overreach. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of birthright citizenship, for example, and Trump announces he’s not bound by the Supreme Court, the uproar will be deafening. 

Or the economy will bite him in the butt. As prices continue to rise and job growth continues to slow — due to Trump’s bonkers import taxes (tariffs), his attempt to take over the Fed, and his attacks on immigrants — America will fall into the dread trap of “stagflation”: stagnation and inflation. After months of this, his base is likely to turn on him — remember, many voted for him because he promised to bring prices down — and he and his Republican lackeys in Congress will be toast in the 2026 midterms. 

Or his brazen corruption will do him in (he’s personally raking in hundreds of millions from crypto, for example). Or Putin will do him in (if Ukraine falls to Russia or an emboldened Russia strikes Lithuania). Or the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. 

He no longer has any truth-tellers to advise him — he has purged all of them. And a president who’s flying blind, without anyone around him to tell him he’s about to crash, will inevitably crash. Many innocent people will likely suffer “collateral” damage. But at least the nation will see him for who he is and consign him to the dustbin of history. 

None of this argues for complacency. We must continue to fight — demonstrate, phone your representatives and senators, boycott corporations and organizations that are caving in to tyranny, protect the vulnerable, make good trouble. 

But please do not fall into denial or despair, and don’t let anyone else.