Death, the Religious Melting Pot, (but not Taxes).
07:36 Apr 18 2007
Times Read: 639
Since February I've noticed people have been dropping like flies. There have been seven deaths in my circle of friends so far. Seven people in three months! Interestingly enough, I seem to have inferred a pattern. Everyone that I know who has died was a person very resistant to change and new ideas. People who would say "there is no this and that because science hasn't proven it." People who would not believe that someone could recover from complete paralysis even if it was their own son that learned to walk again. ("Those tests must have been wrong!") People who steadfastly believe in numbers, math, and reality rather than earth magic, energy and enlightenment. If I didn't know any better, I would think that something is killing the closed-minded. But why?
Once upon a time the only people who were taught to read and write were clerics. This is how the idea of "magic words" was formed. Someone who knew how to read could read the written words and then know something they never knew before, or do something that they've never been able to do before. The only way to get new knowledge was to go to a cleric, or to go to church. The only way to evolve yourself and learn, was through your local religion.
Religion in that day and age was mostly segregated. We had the religions of the sand people - the Christians, Jews and Muslims, the Nordic religions, the Asian religions, the African religions, etc. Most often when any new skill was taught, like herbology, masonry, or medicine, it was taught by the religious mentors within the locality. Beliefs and traditions, and even basic truths were allowed to grow and evolve within several thousand separate closed systems. And so these very basic truths grew inside many different ways of thinking, and were interpreted and then taught down the lines in an incomprehensible number of different ways.
Worlds started to collide right around about the B.C.-A.D. changeover. Roads were built, travel was imminent, exchange of ideas, cultures and religions were unavoidable. Every person with a different idea had his very crux of knowledge challenged, all of the knowledge passed down for generations now needed to be violently defended. For the next two thousand years ideas were spread from hand to hand, and word of mouth, there was one person saying another whole culture was "wrong" and of course there wasn't much in the way of backup writings, tomes, practice and/or open mindedness of the enemy to defend the underdog. Thus, many wars were waged, culture against culture, country against country, religion against religion, all in defense of "right" and "wrong" - all in a vain and bloody attempt to prove one idea over another.
For the last fifty years we have started to gain more and more access to different cultures and ideas, we have started to see that there are many representations of a single truth. We can even believe that there are many different cultures that paint the same god in different but similar clothing, styles, positions, and give them similar roles, responsibilities, weaknesses, etc. We start to see patterns throughout cultures that may point to similar underlying "truths." As a matter of fact, I think it was India that started this trend first because they seemed to be right in the middle of the world getting hit with cultures all around them from about the 1800's! I could have misread my facts, but I think in the Hindu religion one is allowed to choose the shape of the god that suits their needs best. They believe that whatever form is worshipped, it is the same underlying essence.
Here we are in year 2007. The information age. Now because of the internet, each and every one of us can sit right in our living rooms and go off on in depth studies of Muslim, Kabala, Christianity, Voodoo, Shamanism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Wicca, Druish... you get the idea. We start to see that the only difference is the way the cultures have interpreted the forms, interpreted the ideas to suit their surroundings of old. We start to see that many of the ideas and customs taught with the different religions that suited the civilizations in 1800 BC no longer suit our modern needs, and even more rituals still have their merits today, for science, botany, medicine, or even for spiritual stability.
We are in new times. We are experiencing the world not only in global warming, but as if all of us are together in one big melting pot. In this day and age we could literally have breakfast in California, hop a plane and have Dinner in Moscow. We start to understand that we are one people, one world, and we are closer than we think. We start to feel that there are still universal truths, and if we melt everything all together, and pull out what still stands, we may just find them.
We are approaching a dawn of a new age. I believe this will be the age of understanding and enlightenment. Sadly, I suspect that as we are evolving to meet this change, some of us may not be fit for this new era. If the phrase "Evolve or Die" applies then perhaps we are undergoing a "purging" of sorts. It does make one question why over 30 engineering students were killed in the bloodiest school massacre in history! Why engineering students? Why now?
I do know that we are living through an evolution. It doesn't take the death of seven people in my circle of friends, a bloody massacre, and freakishly severe weather patterns over the last five years to tell me that "something is amiss in the Milky Way." As the melting pot grows and we dissolve into one people, we are surely facing "interesting times."
My Birthday....06:22 Apr 17 2007
Times Read: 645
Written very early Sunday morning....
Since my mechanic won't be able to see my little 20 something year old car until Monday, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I deduced that "burping" the car, as she so eloquently put it, has something to do with making the air come up from the cooling system, and refilling the empty space with water. So I played with the hoses, patted the radiator, played with the hoses some more, squished them, shook them, gave them a rub-down (I gave her hoses all this action mostly because I find it is rather difficult to pick up a full-sized minivan to put it over your shoulder and burp it.) All said - I got about a gallon of air out of the car, and filled up that void with walmart's finest bottled water.
Guess what? She's not overheating anymore!
I suspect I either have a slow leak in the system, or else there is air getting in somehow. I know precious little about cars (as is the case with many things - I know just enough to be dangerous), so I'll let my mechanic do the complete analysis on Monday. For now, I have a working car, I am mobile, and let me tell you, that does a LOT to help out my depression.
I realized in my early teens that I have a terribly fierce wanderlust. It doesn't take one very long at all to "out-walk" all of the roads and trails within a five mile radius (and even blaze some fresh ones too), so my passion really started to grow when I first bought a 1970 Chevy Nova for two hundred dollars. I think I said it best when I was 17. The two most important things in my life were to be able to "get around, and have a smoke." As long as I could drive an open road, and keep on smoking the big reds, everything was right as rain. Well, I don't smoke anymore, so I suppose getting around and seeing the world is doubly important to me now.
After I successfully "burped" Wanda, my b/f took the car Friday afternoon and came back with a birthday suprise. A bottle of merlot (which I have barely touched), a boston creme cake (which is about half finished) and some beautiful tiger-striped roses. I've never seen roses like these before, so I named them. "Tiger-Roses" Available at your local wal-mart. hehe.
My cold is mostly gone, I think I killed the last bit of it that night when my friends took me out for my birthday. I had birthday rum and cokes. OK, Rum with a splash of coke. Seriously, these things were almost all rum, topped with a bit of coca cola flavoring. I had three or four. Can't rightly recall much after the third. But I had four body guards that night, so everything turned out just fine. And we found the answer to the age old question, "Why is the rum gone?"
--Because the silly green-haired pookah drank it all!
I heard rumor of what happened that night.... Apparently, I do a lot of growling, meowing and hissing when I drink. *rolls eyes*
I can remember dancing, I can even remember that I was quite suprised that I can still do a split. I'm not sure how I got that rip in my skirt, but I'm happy I almost always wear biking shorts underneath my skirts (especially if I'm going out dancing or something of the like.) I also have what feels like a bruised bone or stress fracture in the outer arch of my foot. Despite the fact that I was it total pain all day, and I was gimping it hard-core, I still managed to dance on it tonight at the Necropolis show.
Yah, funny that. I was up till 5 am Saturday morning, then the head of Mordant Productions calls at 2 PM and says that they need 10 staff badges, 10 performer badges, and 200 new design Necropolis fliers by 8 pm. Six hours. Six hours to design badges and fliers, get them printed, cut and to the show. No time to shower or do make-up or hair, we've got to get the DJ there and run out and pick up the items he needs as well!
So, from 2 to 4 we were designing fliers. At 4 we realize that the head of Mordant didn't tell us to put the Mordant logo on the fliers, so we call and check. Redesign with Mordant logo from 4 to 5. Get everything onto disk, and get to office depot by 6. Fliers printed by 7, get over to the store with the DJ to pick up the soda and water for the event. Grab food, eat and cut the some of the fliers in the car, get completely lost, but still arrive at the event by 8:15. Clear a couple of chairs in the far corner and cut the rest of the fliers at the event. Dance, cut fliers, schmooze, get business leads, cut more fliers, dance some more, watch people looking at me dancing and smiling (flattered that it might appear that some of my moves are spreading around the dance floor), cut more fliers, talk to more people, give massages, drive people home. Oh look its 4:30 am Sunday. *whew!*
And that, my friends, is just one of many ways to win a battle against depression.
Let us hope that the ugly depression gnome is fresh out of reinforcements and has retreated back to its home turf for quite a while to plan a brand new tactical strategy.
The lovable, useable pookah20:50 Apr 09 2007
Times Read: 659
I am beginning to feel rather PO'ed at some of my local friends here. My one friend just IM'ed me because she wants some karaoke backgrounds, other friends do not return my phone calls, I feel like I am here to be used, abused and taken advantage of. I love all you guys I care about what you are up to, how you are feeling, and what is new in your life. and it just seems like there are some that don't give a shit about me aside from what ya'll can get out of me.
I am feeling real hurt right now.
And on top of that:
Car is overheating just trying to get around the corner, so we can't go anywhere right now, we are out of money for the next 8 days, I wrote a bad check for food yesterday and took a cash till payday loan to cover this check and the one I wrote for taxes. I am in constant anticipation of my job ending. I have an 8:00 am meeting tomorrow, Wednesday AND thursday this week. I have a 1:00 reiki appt, I am missing at this very moment, but I don't have the car to get there and NO, I didn't call to cancel. Oh look, there was an easter dinner that I wasn't invited to. Isn't it nice, some people get gifts for easter? hehe. I'm sick of this. It's cold and snowing again, I'm still sick, still have a cold and ear infection, but don't think the car will drive to the doctors. I'm just feeling all beat up and in an impossible situation right now. No, I won't be able to pick up people tomorrow because my car won't stop overheating, etc.
FCUK!
That is all.
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