All You Need Is Love

Not quite fifty-two years ago, this song was the one that The Beatles performed to close out the veryfirst live global television link. It was broadcast in 26 different countries and viewed by about 350 million people. For the fascinating details surrounding that event and also how the song came to be written, go here.

While you're at it, check out the website supporting The Synchronized Global Orgasm For Peace. Recreate the Big Bang! Tell your friends.!

Take a Moment...

Take a moment to breathe.
Sometimes, in the hustling and the bustling, I forget to clear the clutter and the clatter from my mind and just breathe. 
Wish someone well. Call someone up. Smile.
Whoever you are and whatever you are going through, there is always someone you know who is a little worse off than you are. Share your smile with them.
It is easy to be anxious or moody in the midst of all this uproar, but I try to be an oasis of peace and tranquility amid all of it... and I was taught to share.
Be kind to one another, not just today and tomorrow, or this week... but always. It's a long boat ride with a lot of people on board... and it is good to share a laugh when the seas are stormy.
Whatever it is that you choose to celebrate or contemplate, may you fare safely and in good spirits.
Be well. I love you all.

Today's Remembrance

Okay, kids... pop quiz!
What do terrorists want?
I bet it's terror... or panic.
Dread is even acceptable.
Terrorists want people to be forever nervous and afraid. It keeps those people from thinking.
Psychological reinforcement of terror is quick, cheap and easy.
Don't give in to it.
Remember the event. Remember that it caused pain, suffering, and turmoil.
But, for sanity's sake, leave the pain, suffering, and turmoil in the past where it belongs.
Do not fear. Do not dread.
Do not give in to rage or hatred.
Show terrorists how a free people conduct themselves... unflinchingly, with grace and dignity.
Remember the bravery and unselfishness of those who helped. Remember those who fell.
Honor their memory by going about your daily business... calm and unafraid.
This is the best way to spit in a terrorist's eye.

Breathe, Smile, Laugh...

Breathe... appreciate the little things... the delightful things... look for those fleeting momentary opportunities to relax those facial muscles and lift one corner of your mouth in kind of a smile... don't resist that... go with it... nurture it... shield it from the bitter winds as you would the faltering flame of a lonely match... let it catch fire to you and grin widely... laugh in spite of yourself, at yourself, with yourself... but, most of all, smile and laugh... it's addicting... and contagious.

Some Thoughts on Letting Go and Freedom

I think that most of you folk know that I shun creebing about my tiny, high-class problems in a public forum, just as I would not take a megaphone to a street-corner and broadcast them. However, I sometimes ruminate on my thoughts during and after some of my more interesting times, just in case someone else may find that it could relate to something that is going on with them. Then, too, I often get some fascinating perspectives from others, many of which I find helpful to me.
That said, I am profoundly grateful to a couple of dear friends for providing the springboard I needed, at just the right time, in order to make a mental leap... one which has caused me to think of a situation in a very different way, thereby making a connection between two things which I have known for a while, but just hadn't ever put together in a manner such as relates to how I am habitually used to thinking, feeling, and behaving.
There are two movie scenes I like to use as illustrations in conversation, when apropos of the general subject matter. I cannot recall ever having utilized them both in the same exchange, though.
(1) In Star Wars, Chapter III: Revenge of the Sith, Yoda counsels Anakin Skywalker by telling him, "You must train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." We see what becomes of Anakin when he fails to detach from his feelings and gives in to his fears by attempting to control a situation when it is not within his province to do so. 
(2) In The Shawshank Redemption, Brooks got a parole after half-a-century of being in prison, but cannot adjust to a free life, and eventually hangs himself.
Now, in using that first illustration, I am careful to point out that when one lets another person go, one gives leave to this other person to follow their own path wherever it may lead. That means one must recognize and accept that the other person gets to walk away, change their feelings, move to another place, or even die. 
I point out further that when one does this, one is not freeing this other person... for the other person has always had these rights. One is freeing one's self from a prison of one's own making in realizing this.
To let any situation go, one is called upon to make a judgment as to which things are under one's control and which things cannot be changed. Then, also... there are those things which one should not attempt to control. This freedom of will business is not to be taken lightly.
What I had never considered before is that, in letting myself out of my own prison, I must now learn how to handle the freedom.
Freedom, for someone like me, can be a scary thing. How I act freely gives measure of the content of my character. 
Sorry folks... there will be no hangings.
I tend to think that, for most persons, there are freedoms which are desired and there are those which are not sought. Likely, there are also many sorts of little freedoms, which I believe may be overlooked in day-to-day living. 
When I find myself suddenly and unexpectedly free, shall I let fear speak and act for me? I would not wish to have My Positive Eye jaundiced by bitterness or petty meanness born of despair for the loss of my comfortable cage. This is a chance to get out of my self!
I have faith that if I continue to learn and grow... if I am willing to do a little work... if I am honest... if I act with kindness and compassion... then I am on the right path and all will work out for the best in the end.

"Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses..."

Once in a while, I rant about rants. Tell me... have you seen this one? Have you shared it?

Besides the obvious fact that the natives of this land welcomed freely the Europeans who barged in here and crowded them onto little pieces of their own land while setting up laws which kept them from getting it back,  people seem to forget that, at the Statue of Liberty, there is a plaque. The last bit of that plaque reads,

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I have provided a link to the full inscription at the end of this blog post.

Shouldn't we offer freedom with the open arms of hope and charity? Wasn't that how we began the American Dream? Weren't we saying, "Gee... we're sorry that you had to flee, but since you had to then, by all means, flee here." 

Of course, if you really believe everything in this little rant that you shared, you must fully agree with how the governments of North Korea, Afghanistan, and Iran are running the show. Are you really endorsing their policies when you share this? Are you saying that, as a country, we should be more like them?

Y'know it's funny, really. I run with a crowd that has a tradition of not turning anyone away. I have often thought that our principles and traditions would be a nice thing for all people to embrace, and not just us. But then, it is not up to me to tell everyone else how to live.

I mean, I can only tell people that my method of economic recovery is not shopping at dollar stores and Wal-Mart, so that fewer dollars go to China and more back into my own community... and that my method of staying positive is not sharing angry rants via my social networking media... I can't tell anyone else what to do, so I just tell them what I do.

However, when I am angry I ask myself... what am I scared of?

Here's the link to the poem by Emma Lazarus which is inscribed on a tablet within the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty stands: http://www.libertystatepark.com/emma.htm

Only 4 More Days Until Beethoven's Birthday!

Thank goodness for Charles M. Schulz (affectionately known as "Sparky" to friends and colleagues). If it weren't for him, I never would have known that Ludwig Von Beethoven was born on the sixteenth of December. 

When I was a kid, back in the sixties, one of the greatest things in the world was getting to read the latest Peanuts comic strip anthology. We were big fans of good ol' Charlie Brown in our old house on Wayburn ( as well as Walt Kelly's Pogo and Johnny Hart's B.C. ). 

Back then, I just thought it was funny to see Schroeder proudly carrying a sign which read, "Only 41 more days until Beethoven's Birthday!", followed by Snoopy who was holding his own sign that said, "Or did you already know that?" 

Three weeks worth of strips later, Schroeder's sign reads, "Only 20 more days until Beethoven's Birthday". Three panels after that, Snoopy holds up the one that says, "If you'd keep track yourself, we wouldn't have to do this!" 

But, as with much of the Peanuts strip humor, there is a message embedded not too deeply below the surface. Sparky tips his hand in a strip that has Lucy talk to the boy standing next to her: "Beethoven's Birthday is Dec. 16th, Shermy..." she says sweetly. "Have you decided what you're going to get me?" 

"Yes!" Shermy responds, curtly. "I'm not going to get you anything!" 

At that point, he marches off stage left, frowning, as Lucy and Patty (who appears suddenly from stage right) watch expressionlessly. 

Lucy then turns to Patty and asks, "What kind of a holiday is it where you don't give girls presents?" 

Just in case some of the audience is oblivious to wry subtleties and clever hints, Schulz has Schroeder walk by a couple of weeks later with another sign. This one is emblazoned with the declaration: "Only 5 more shopping days 'til Beethoven's Birthday". For a change of pace, it is Lucy who carries the equally bold follow-up sign which warns: "Stores open until nine o'clock". 

Schulz often offered various reactions to social and cultural currents through the mouths of his many different characters in, more often than not, a very humorous fashion. Being a newspaper strip cartoonist ( and a very successful one, at that! ) he was all too familiar with the workings of the commercial world. I tend to believe that this was one of his satirical jabs at our habit of attempting to generate bucks out of commemorative dates and holidays. 

Not that Schulz made any attempt to avoid commercialism and merchandising himself. But, surprisingly enough... I really don't mind too much, simply because that stuff had some real substance to it. It was charming, clever, thought-provoking, deep, delightful... and just plain fun. 

So, sometime in the next few days, I'm going to slip Vince Guaraldi's score to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in the CD player of my Jeep, and drive down to Paperback Writer Books to see if maybe I can find a Peanuts book.