Connect the dots!

 Once upon a time there was a planet where one species dominated. When I say dominated I mean they believed it was their duty to be in control. Other species had to be cared for until the dominants wanted to eat them, then they were stored in sheds and killed as required. This worked fine for the dominants as long as they controlled all the other dominants on the planet. Trouble arose when different tribes competed for the dominant position.

It might seem obvious that if all the dominants were able to find a way to get along, to share the goods and responsibilities. The strange thing is - it was not those who had the least power who fought the most, it was those who were raised as the most powerful and their families.

It could be that those who were poorest couldn't fight because they were serving those at the top. And worst of all those at the bottom, the most abused were grateful for survival. But those at the top or near the top were anxious about losing any little part of their power - mostly the imagined superiority they clung to. 

Whether in the court of Henry VIII or the Government of USA, the obsession of its members was the amount of control they owned personally. For slim comfort they believed if they could create tensions among the others, if they could make them feel insecure, they could be in control.

Control was a dream, a fantasy, which did more harm than good because people who feel insecure don't problem solve, they create more problems. They don't use the gifts of the heart in wisdom to care for one another rather than compete.

Do Rulers Want to Destroy All Life and All of Its Memory?

 

When I hear of new wars or even old wars that never end I wonder if the reason is to clean the planet of all life here?

When I hear of politicians saying "grab 'er by the pussy" or make generalized remarks of hatred towards everyone who is different or who will not have anything to do with humanity if they can help it, I wonder if their long term goal is to find a way to kill off all life, its language and what little remains of compassion.

I believe there are some who hate anything that gets in their way. That they are entitled to get everything they want and not be criticized. 

It's not a full philosophy, it's a repugnance towards the messy life constraints. They want to get away from it all. Maybe move to another planet or at least have nothing to do with the masses.

Yes I have heard of several people who are so "special" they cannot deal with anything where they do not have control.

Where will this go from here? Remember the Handmaid's tale? Brave New World? 1984? 

Does it sound so ridiculous that right now there are souls planning  a world in which they are in absolute control? What do they need to achieve this? What would it take for this to happen? A planet that belongs to one corporation?

Astronomica

 

My latest book of poems "Astronomica" is now available at Ekstasis Editions. cover image- photo taken by Elaine Vickers

Acknowledgements

This fourth book is my attempt to understand the world as I lived it. My mother, one of four girls born to a man who fought in the first world war and returned to England with his bride.

They came to a small town in England where the daughters grew up and married young men who would be called up to fight in the second world war. Sadly my mother’s first husband was killed in the war when she was pregnant.

Marlow, a small farm town in England, the town I most remember before we emigrated to Canada was pretty and not too industrial. The lives of people were the stories I grew up with.

Father, mother, sisters and brother, came to Canada in 1965, settled in Lac de deux Montagne, got a job at Rolls Royce and met the boy I married. We moved to Toronto then to BC. Eager to learn who I was in this vast Universe, I learned to scribble.

Wanting all these years to jot down my experiences, poetry was the outlet I kept returning to.

With gratitude to the many teachers who helped along the way, I thank Ekstasis and all publishers who print memories, thoughts and hopes for peace in the future.

This porridge of egos and sleepless nights, are all a kind of love from one generation to the next.

I have a few copies now. Email ekstasis if you are interested in having a copy or janetvickers@gmail.com.

This World Is Manufactured

This world is full of eyes 

Reaching the landscape 

Under the words spoken by 

Mighty dumb opinionators 

Parsing the lowest common denominator 

Every day then repeated on front 

Dummed down screens too big to not see.

Surviving the Politics of This Time

 

https://www.nationalobserver.com/podcast/mortal-giants/trump-post-american-world?utm

Certainly the corporate media today emphasizes the few who are at the top of the capitalist chart. Only business and money counts. Life without money is a slow hungry death. In between now and then will be stories of the vain narcissist, the talented hungry masses, and the large number of people who have been forsaken by the capitalist dream - to watch ordinary people quietly go mad while the extraordinary few brag, laugh and engage in silly games to show off their special cruelty.

The effective real people doing a lot of fixing and fix-up and caring, while the media ignores them as they promote pictures of a very small minority gloating over their fame and power. The silent masses will be weeping quietly. The wisdom accumulated from hard working genuine people will be forgotten.

First we can forget the mainstream. Go to the groups that are struggling, pouring all their energy into helping those who need help, creating space for the ideas that are most needed.

Then we can focus on the reality of our situation and do whatever we can to help. The first thing is to acknowledge we depend on one another to survive then move forward on that.

Humanity 101 - we already know this

 We think humans are one species but we behave as if we are many and we have to beat the others. We must win even if we don't know who or what it is we have to win. So we muscle in, go to war, and kill our relatives.

In this climate it is wrong to find the truth, to use our curiosity, our courage, our love for life.

Why is it we must hate and kill?

Because the most stupid are the most terrified.

What are we terrified of? We might be wrong? Our tribe may see us as stupid? Or that we may be tortured to death because we are not stupid enough?

The current unexamined power are those who have guns but no brains. Brains are a form of torture. The president does not have the most power.

That power goes to the key that unlocks the box. An inanimate box that holds the key to the box not owned by anyone or anything.

I don't know. No-one knows. Even the President is not allowed to know. This way we are all kept powerless. Nobody, no breathing person knows.

We humans are waiting for the big flood or fire to kill us all. Why?

Are we afraid that women will take over the men who have been trained to NOT THINK TOO MUCH, to rule the planet according to minutes of the last meeting?

We could learn the power-of-the-universal hug. We could lift the world up with our love and care. Find the power of compassion, support, wisdom and thinking through our problems as if we are all related. House and feed every human who needs it. Make health care available. Help those who need help.

I know this is the role of women, teachers, doctors and dentists. The warrior was trained so we could forget the power of loving kindness.

Losing Our Country Losing Our Minds

 https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/11/19/opinion/saving-cbc-saving-canada-poilievre?utm_source=National+Observer&utm_campaign=f25cc29e16-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024

Read this. Listen to CBC. Read National Observer. This is a critical time that demands our thinking, feeling and imagining a future based solely on greed for power.

The only thing that can save us from losing our selves is holding on to our relationship to other humans.

George Monbiot www.monbiot.com

The eye concludes that this is a species, beset by a lethal combination of conformity, distraction and a fear of offending powerful interests, actively collaborating in its own extinction. It sees a species dominated by Lords of the Desert: people prepared to destroy everything as long as they can command the ruins. It wonders whether the species has a survival instinct at all, or whether, instead, it has only an instinct to obey.