Christmas...... are you celebrating it?

There are two Christmas celebrations.

One, the consumerist celebration where we bribe each other in hopes that goodwill can be generated with money instead of time and fellowship. A celebration supported by business hoping to keep selling product.

Two, a religous celebration that takes a historical story of God coming in the form of a human to make the world right by showing us that there is a better way and ending that story with selfless sacrifice. (Perhaps an abbreviated version of the religious story.) A celebration supported by the religious institutions that struggle to exist in the increasing complex world and/or good intentioned humans.

AND

Maybe you need not believe in the story of God coming to earth in human form to accept the reality that we need a celebration to remind ourself that being conscientious in our fellowship with others, selfless contributing to the common good and generally not being a selfish bad person.

Maybe, just maybe, we sadly need a celebration that brings us together because our smart phones, social media and "busy" lives have us focusing, dare I say obessing, on the wrong things in life leaving us feeling hopeless in a time where the world has fewer problems than ever before.

The Problem with "Wisdom"

The Problem with "Wisdom" when it comes from old text written long ago, is that the world was a horrible place long ago.

People did horrible things to each other, leaders manipulated people using lies stacked upon lies and death came far too quickly. This statement, is still far too simple compared to the the state of things in humanities past. Just study history.

Why then, would you look to a text written during a historical time where human rights were being trampled on to guide yourself in today's world? Why, when we actually have a chance at global peace?

How does a story, written hundreds of years ago, telling you to kill someone if they violate a rule not cause you to lose trust for that story or the book that it is contained within?

"Context", that is what I am told, "context" needs to be considered. NO, I would argue, its not about context. It's about setting out new stories that help us to consider the challenges of values and ethics in society for tomorrow.

We continue to have a large portion of the world's population that are vulnerable to manipulation and we must stop looking to historical texts as if they were written today. To study history in earnest is to learn from the mistakes and abuse of humankind's past. 

If you are educated and can study history for what it is, then you must write new stories to give humanity's future stories that are applicable to the future ahead. Stories without violence, but filled with collaboration and discussion. Stories without hatred, but filled with community and fellowship. Stories without greed, but filled with success in sharing the common good.

We can learn from historical texts but we must not chain ourselves to the same fates that those who  wrote them faced.

Real Life Satisfaction - My Thoughts on Bill and Melinda Gates

Bill and Melinda Gates are billionaires. Bill could easily disappear to a private Caribbean island and live out his life in complete luxury.  Perhaps he does enjoy that lifestyle more than I do but he also spends a great deal of time sharing his wealth with a lot of people who are not shareholders in his companies, not part of the elite 1% and not the movers and shakers who might ensure he stays wealthy.

Bill and Melinda share their money helping to lift people out of the bottom of society. They are the kind of role models that make me want to play the lottery so I can win, and then my wife and I could create our own foundation to give away money and help the poor. Bill and Melinda are the kind of wealthy people our world needs right now and I think they are starting to have an influence on other wealthy people in the world.

This positive role model and real action for change is the kind of leadership we truly need for a number of reasons.

First, Bill and Melinda are not bound to political cycles or boundaries, therefore avoiding the luke warm response from governments to helping outside their borders when it might negatively affect their results in the next election.

Second, Bill and Melinda are leaders who can make connections across governments, business and NGOs linked to actual objectives that they can deliver on without hoping that one of the partners doesn't back out for some selfish reason of their own. They are strong enough to deliver, leveraged with partners but not controlled by them.

Third and finally, Bill and Melinda can share their stories of work and success with change without being dependent on main stream media covering their story. The internet has changed everything for people like them. Broadcasting with web content or streaming video and viral sharing with social media are incredibly powerful.

So, how does this relate to the people of the world living in a developed nation? The answer lies in our search for meaning.

I truly believe that Bill and Melinda achieve real life satisfaction from their actions. They don't need to search for the meaning of life on our planet, they have found it.

Escape

Escape our human reality, it is what we do.

Whether it be into a book, video game, movie, drawing, story or just our imagination we go to that unreal imaginary place to escape our present reality.

It is an amazing ability that humans have to cope with hardship, suffering and boredom.

It is also the largest growing industry on the planet and moving both our potential and earnings the worlds wealthiest elite faster than ever before.

That human potential was needed for us to fulfill our destiny of stewardship of earth and community to leave an even greater potential for future generations.

Can we start back into full engagement with that stewardship, one baby step at a time?

we are stewards

Public lands and lakes, parks, charities, community groups, churches, oceans, community trust and air are . . . . . . .

. . . . .not yours . . . . . . . .

. . . . . they are gift to be shared with everyone and left for future generations just as they were a gift to you.

Knowing that they will bring joy, meaning, peace, happiness and comfort . . . . . . . 

. . . . . . is your payment for leaving them as good as or better than you found them.

Helping others escape, survive, grow from, cope with and learn from with hardships are not your punishment for caring . . . . . .

. . . . . . it is your history lesson to empower you with what must be done differently so others do not suffer that same fate. 


The homeless, poor, lost, refugees and the abused are not your burden . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . their diversity and adaptability are part of the strong, stable community you are building for the future just as your world and community was left for you.

We are stewards.

This is our role as humans. We have the capacity.

This is not a religious perspective or a political one, it is human.

If we do not put effort into self-less acts that ensure stewardship of the earth and the human community we are not fulfilling our destiny as humans.

If we search inside our inner being we know that selfish acts lead to conflict, war and destruction. The denial of this is the acceptance that the human race is destined to extinction faster and hope will be lost.

The children of the future have a right to embrace the beauty of our planet, you do not have the right to take it away.

the problem with a label......and democracy

The label states that this product is "fresh", how do you define that?

If you polled your friends, how many definitions of fresh do you think you would get? More than one, I would think.

The problem lies with the label and what it implies.

When we choose a label, or one is assigned to us, associations often come with that label for actions and choices.

If you say you are vegetarian,  then when you eat meat you are a liar?

If you say you are an atheist, then when you go to church you are a hypocrite?

The list would go on and on but the rationale to critize someone based on them not upholding the truth to their label is a ridiculous part of life today.

The worst, WORST, part about how a label affects us is how people participate in a community.  because of their label without thinking first.

That your acceptance of a label would have you blindly following someone leading that label's group so far that would accept a fate for yourself, your children, grandchildren and beyond. 

That your acceptance of that label would mean that you accept that elite, manipulative and selfish peoples would take for themselves that which belonged to the entire community.

This is what happens when you blindly accept a label, without thinking, researching and building a relationship with the people behind it.

Sadly, every four years I see people falling to the trap of labels with politics where the greatest of those amongst the elite and manipulative push to maintain power.

 

more to come.....

sharing the wishing well

A wishing well is found.

For everyone who takes a sip of water from the well a wish of the natural gifts of the world is granted.

At first the well is known only to a small group of people but as they tell their friends the number of people grows.

As the number grows people start to notice that the taste of the water begins to grow bitter and wishes too start to become tainted and incomplete.

One wise person then asks for their wish to be guidance on how to restore the well to its natural abundance of good wishes and they are rewarded with an inspiration to do just that.

The answer to restoring the well lies in two challenges.

The first challenge is to restore the surrounding area to its previous conditions before the people came and trampled on the natural beauty. People can continue to come in the same volumes, and even increasing, but the space around the well requires an investment of labor to ensure that the physical space is of equal caliber as the gift of the well.

The second way to restore the well is to bring special flowers and drop them in the well. The problem is that these flowers are not plentiful near the well and are spread out across the land. For the volumes to come they would need to ask that all who came would bring the flowers with them to contribute.

Upon learning of these solutions the original group of people who had first learned of the well gathered to discuss what must done.

Some argued that if they were going to labor to restore the land around the well to its natural beauty that only they should know the secret of the flowers so that only they would have their wishes granted.

Others argued that only if they involved all people would they be able to maintain the well and surrounding area to the standards expected.

Others argued that the outsiders should be expected to bring more flowers than them and they could have wishes but their extra flowers would be payment for their labors.

One voice argued that they should share the well, the labors and flowers expected with all. If someone came in need of the wishing well but was unable to provide either labor or flowers they would not be denied.

When their meeting had concluded they agreed to keep the secrets of the wishing well renewal to themselves. They would repair the landscape around the well. For those outsiders who learned of the well they would charge a surcharge. The surcharge would go into their own benefit of the well.

As the years passed the original group struggled with the maintenance of the wishing well and surroundings and they found that they put less and less effort into collecting their own flowers and more and more effort into increasing surcharges on others.

The well became bitter again and the original group simply stayed on near the well because they felt entitled to everything and anything that would come it.

Some years flowers would be plentiful or someone with skills with the land would restore the well and area but nothing was sustained.

Then a strange thing happened.

A stranger, who did not believe in the powers of the well, came with a friend. That stranger did not drink of the well but did witness how beauty seemed to be lurking in the shadows around the well. It seemed as though the beauty was desiring to explode from the natural space but was kept held back by the ugliness of abuse that the land had endured.

The stranger also saw the hope in people when they came to the well, hoping for a refreshing drink that would grant their wish.

Finally, the stranger met the entitled who hung over the well waiting for their next easy wish. He saw how they desired to keep the wishing well and its powers to themselves but that they new that they required the flowers of the others to keep the well producing.

The stranger then met with the appointed custodian and asked about the maintenance of the well. The custodian had grown tired of games that the entitled asked of them. They worked to give access to all who would see their wishes from the well but they knew that the entitled were holding captive some of the greatest potential for the well.

The stranger was perplexed. The stranger did not believe in wishes but was very curious about what the entitled were not sharing with everyone else.

The stranger could just leave, but something made them curious about the mysteries of the well and why some people so badly craved a wish to be granted for them.

What was the stranger to do?