mermaidcamp

mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Spiritual Crisis

August 14, 2014 — 3 Comments

What is a spiritual crisis? They are all over the biblical stories and the parables we are taught about heroes.  Some power that is not explained in the regular time bound reality has an influence on the character. Through hardship, or magic, or stressful change the hero, or the hero people,  become stronger than the force that had power over them.  There must be a zillion versions of this in video gaming.  Comic superhero figures and stories are based on supernatural battles in altered states with magical super powers thrown into the mix.  We see our religion and entertainment in terms of spiritual crisis pending or resolving, or causing trauma.  Why do we think of our everyday world as void of spiritual energy?  What makes us draw a line between reality and spirit?  Why do we think only shamans or monks have obligations to the spirit world?  Just as prayer and meditation will not repair the roof, tar and roofing tiles alone will not restore peace and security inside a home that has been bombed.  Everyone has both an earthly reality to tend and a higher meaning to life.

Looking at world events as evolving from a spiritual rather than  scientific or political causes might change the way we act and react.  Our own souls have certain obligations or tasks that coincide with the talents we have been given.  It is time to find right livelihood and spend our time and energy uplifting those who need help and who are seeking spiritual guidance.  At the end of life, no matter how and when that comes, we will not be concerned about how many insignificant tasks we have completed or how many hours we put on the clock doing busy work.  We will wonder if we have done what we have the talent to do, and if we have contributed the gift that was ours to create.  Much ado is being made about the suicide of Robin Williams this week.  Without diagnosing him or making light of all the circumstances (which I don’t know) I see this incident as a crisis of spirit, like the wars around the world.  It makes me sad, but I view it as a call for profound change.  We need to shift our outlook, about 2 octaves higher.

Invasive Species, Rhus Lancea

August 8, 2014 — 7 Comments

Invasive botanical species are like untended social problems. If they are ignored they will take over and eliminate the native species because they are powerful and destructive.  Rhus Lancea is an invasive species that is taking over midtown Tucson.  It was brought here as a landscape plant, but quickly got out of control.  It is a relative of poison ivy, and causes some people to have serious allergic reactions, either respiratory or as a skin rash.  It spreads by producing abundant seeds as well as by spreading underground by suckers.  If there is irrigation water, rhus lancea will be very likely to sprout and grow, taking nutrients and moisture from the native or landscape plants.  Since it develops such a network underground the tree is very difficult to kill.  Cutting it down will not kill it, but will encourage spreading through the roots.  It is like a street gang, very undesirable and hard to eliminate.

I have been thinking about how these invasive plants are like crime.  If everyone ignores crime like tagging, vandalism, and gang activity it sucks the nutrients and value out of the neighborhood.  If drug dealing and other crimes are tolerated they blend into the scene making the whole place less valuable and less safe.  With no awareness, or worse, willful blindness to criminal and anti social activity we can only expect the environment to fill with undesirable behaviors.  We have a vivid illustration of this right outside my front door.  We pay landscaping company to kill our landscaping plants and waste large amounts of water each day.  We (the owners of shares of our HOA)  have just paid to have what was described as a dying mesquite tree removed from our sidewalk.  Since it is not dying and is a rhus lancea, we have paid these gardeners to encourage the growth of all of the children of the tree, that have been left in place.  The stump will probably grow back again too.  If actions we take are based on ignorance we will not arrive at a better situation.  Can you think of situations like this that remind you of government?  Working against our own interests seems to be so common these days.

History and Conflict

July 30, 2014 — 4 Comments

 

I spend a lot of time studying history, usually by learning about my own ancestry. The knowledge of my own family in different time periods has really helped me to get a better understanding of significant events and political movements. I began with some curiosity about how my own parents developed their ideas and culture, and now I can’t stop. I guess I don’t think about my own place in history, but a visit to the University I attended when I was 17 has given me both flash backs and chills. The anti-war movement and what was known as the free speech movement were obvious choices for me as a teen. I disagreed with all forms of violence, and my parents not only practiced violence in their personal lives, but firmly believed that military might and hatred were American privileges. I see now that my own reaction to their way of thinking not only changed my life, but changed history.

Now we find ourselves in a highly militaristic and war torn world.  Racism has not disappeared, but has gone underground. Poverty and lack of education and health care are in about the same situation as the 1950’s.  The effects of the laws, the programs, and the ideals that lifted America to a better place have virtually vanished into thin air.  We have more descent about politics then I have seen in my lifetime.  Our people are addicted to debt and squandering resources mindlessly.  Greed has replaced most other motives, and corporations can buy any government they want.  I will not form any philosophy around this decay and lowering of standards for the greater good because it has been happening since the dawn of time.  Our recurrent situation, fighting in wars in foreign lands for no logical purpose is no different from the Crusades, or the devastation of Native America.  Power may not beget evil, but the cycles of  tragedy follow the cycles of power.  We can only analyze the past after time has passed and those cycles become clear.  In my youth I thought that ending the Vietnam War would end all wars.  I have to wonder if this feeling also has occurred in young people forever.  The idea that when we finally have power we will change the world to make it better for everyone could not possibly have been originated by hippies.  I am sure there have always been those who wanted to give peace a chance. Things have to hit bottom before they bounce, just like real estate.  I can only hope that bottom is once again in sight, and that the end of my life will resemble the beginning, with an attitude of hope and conviction that we can do better.

 

Empire Avenue, a Social Experiment

July 10, 2014 — 32 Comments

The activity on Empire Avenue resembles the stock market, but Wall Street does not have recreational investment games on the weekends. I like the Avenue because it allows me to meet and find new people writing all kinds of great content. The games are intended to socially introduce the members to each other in a non competitive way. Embedded treasure hunts are followed at your own pace. Reward bucks and accomplishment badges are the prizes given for participation, but the true reward is the exposure to the other players.  One way I learn about the other players is by completing missions, for which I am paid in Empire bucks.   This straightforward approach is better, in my opinion, than all the quid pro quo schemes I have seen in LinkedIn (like my page and I will like yours).  As any investor wants his stock to increase in value, so on the Avenue you want the scores and stock prices of the players you hold in your portfolio to do well.  If they quit or loose interest you can sell the stock without any problem.  If they quit entirely you are given a refund in the amount of your shares invested in that person.  There are commissions, and ways to save on them, but since they are all imaginary bucks I don’t stress over that particular issue.  These are some of the ways Empire Avenue differs from other social media sites:

  • There is an open market so reciprocity is not a factor for connecting-just buy or sell
  • All other networks are listed making it easy to get in touch elsewhere if desired
  • Special groups organize parties, games, and innovation
  • EA Leaders group works to enhance the whole experience and recruit new members
  • Missions allow you to both support and learn more about your shareholders/portfolio
  • Detailed data from all the social media sites gives very good feedback on success/failure rates
  • It allows me to feel like a stock market tycoon without risking real money

In a little less than a year I have built up almost 80 million Empire bucks in wealth.  It is satisfying to watch your shares become more valuable and your portfolio rise in value too.  Some of the same due diligence you do for the stock market is necessary.  It is not such a good idea to buy and hold blindly.  Things change.  You need to stay current on your investments, just like real life.  I have been thinking of inviting my fiduciary to join just to see how well he would do, but I really want him to concentrate on my money, so maybe that is a silly idea.  I will let him handle calculated financial risks.   I will enjoy being a mogul on #EmpireAvenue while he sticks to Wall Street.

Gambler Archetype

May 23, 2014 — 6 Comments

Risk is part of life. The gambler is excited by risk and winning against odds.  This bold, sometimes foolish attitude toward taking risks lands the gambler in trouble.  Betting on companies or new technology can result in very good returns for the confident intuitive investor.  It can also backfire as quickly as a casino game.  Each of us has a unique profile for risky behavior/spending/investing/loyalties.  We may be suspicious of the stock market and decide to collect coins, precious metals, or guns.  We might like to see our assets in the bank earning a little interest.  We may believe that real estate makes us secure, although recent events have shown how volatile real property investments can be.  The truth is that nobody knows what the future will bring.  A well-adjusted approach to gambling is needed to moderate stress.  We can neither gamble away our life savings without consequence, nor can we find a way to be 100% immune to losses.

When circumstances are completely out of your control, as in our recent banking crisis, freaking out will only add to the strain.  Cutting losses is a concept we need to use in life, but we normally learn it by enduring some difficult losses while clinging to some delusion.  The shadow gambler has developed a risk taking addiction, not necessarily in a casino or game setting.  A strong compulsion to take risks will eventually create a personality nobody can trust.  The danger exists in the loss of control over various types of greed.  Politicians risk their reputations on a regular basis.  Money, status, and freedom are at stake.  Do you have a relationship with a gambler?  How is your own relationship with risk?

Tear Down the VA

May 10, 2014 — 3 Comments

I saw a doctor and a veteran on the national news who said the way to solve the VA problem is to dissolve it. I agree completely. I volunteered at the VA because I still believed I could raise the standard of care when I did it. Not only was it impossible to raise the standard of care for just one person to whom I was assigned, the entire institution is unethical and scary as hell.  The electronic medical records system is abused constantly, as are the patients.  As a taxpayer I was shocked and upset at the use of funds to do nothing for the patients.  Money is used liberally, but the outcomes and the patients are the least of the agency’s concern.  As featured in the recent Phoenix scandal, the employees at the VA are shooting for big bonuses rather than improving the lives of the Vets.  They are so far off course that it can’t be remedied.  There is a culture of extreme abuse and fraud.  Those Veterans can just go to doctors of their choice and we can run it like the congressional health care system.  We don’t need to institutionalize abuse any more than we already have.

I was assigned to visit patients at home.  My fist dude lived at home with his wife. After he died I was assigned to  my second patient who lived in a care home.  Both of them mentioned problems with health care and thought I could help them.  I thought so too, until I tried.  The premise was that we would report unsafe of undesirable conditions, which the VA could fix. The problem was that no matter how much money was spent they never addressed the issues.  They simply did something, with no consideration of the needs of the patient. It was a waste-o-rama.  When I met my second patient I could hear the feedback from his hearing aid across the room.  He asked if I might be able to help him get hearing aids that did not screech.   That seemed simple enough, but after more than a year and several long hard visits to the hospital his hearing aid was still loud enough for me to hear it from across the room.  He was suicidal and talked frequently about it, but after a few attempts at helping him with other VA problems I knew it was a mistake to tell them anything that would make them torture him any more.   I finally threw in the VA towel when they directed me to leave him as I found him one day, unconscious and unresponsive in his care home. I had called a nurse, who looked at him for about a minute and left.  I was instructed by the VA not to call 911 or take any action to save his life.  I had to quit my official position and visited him myself without doing any reports to the VA.  His health was in severe decline and he was not able to wake up most of the time, so I eventually stopped visiting him because it was emotionally draining and frustrating.  Nothing he or I asked the VA to do for him was done, but plenty of people received salaries milling around pretending to care for him.  I called the local senior care advocate to help him get out of some of his problems, which did work.  The VA told me that was a conflict of interest, and I was never to seek real help for him from other institutions. I was working against my own beliefs by representing the VA, so I had to end that.

Being left on a waiting list for care is unacceptable, but sadly, so is the care given when they finally manage to give it.  I have heard of those who have had good experiences with VA health care, but nothing recent.  There is no reason to have a separate, corrupt and highly unregulated system that does not serve the patents well.  If we can reform health care, we can eliminate the waste and abuse that the VA contains. Those who have risked everything deserve the best.  Taxpayers deserve to know we are giving them the best care available.  This situation is highly symbolic to me of the disrespect government frequently displays for the citizens who pay for it.  I am a pacifist, so my concern for the soldiers is moral and ethical.  I did not want to send them off to war, but since it has happened I sincerely believe we need to honor that sacrifice they made.

 

Liberator Archetype, Tara

May 8, 2014

The liberator serves others in political and sometimes military capacities. Freeing others from injustice and adverse conditions is the role played by the archetype.  The words terrorist and liberty have been used and diluted to the point that we are weary as well as wary of news of political freedom.  Shadow liberation is often substitution of one violent group for another equally intolerant one.  The kidnapping of the school girls in Nigeria has galvanized world opinion on the need for urgent action to find and free them.  Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha were liberators in their places and times in history.  The goddess Tara is known as the swift liberator because her nature is to answer very quickly when she is called.

Mantra is a way to meditate and call on Tara to teach us to be free of the 8 fears.  Green Tara is pictured with her right foot in front of her because she is symbolically ready to hurry to those who call her.  If sound meditation is new to you, the power of it may come as a surprise.  We need the swift and sure guidance of Tara to reach the girls and bring them to safety.  The mantra above is easy to learn, but even if you simply listen with the idea of freeing the kidnappers as well as the girls from the situation, it is positive.  Please join us, gentle reader, to #BringBackOurGirls.  Let us create a worldwide mantra of liberation that will reach into the African jungle to bring them home.

Materialism and Inheritance

May 1, 2014 — 6 Comments

Do you have enough stuff? What kind of stuff do you lack? Do you have goals that do not involve material stuff? My parents were heavily into possessions, and at the end of their lives it seemed that those things they loved so much robbed them of any kind of peace. They struggled to keep objects and wealth long after they even knew what any of the objects were. They wanted to keep an image of themselves in society, and other transitory status rather than seeking truth. There was nothing I could do to help them with that.

I am doing a meditative practice about abundance now. I have special feelings about one of the biblical phrases used in this practice. “All things that the Father hath are mine.” John 16:15. This is talking about the Father with a big F, not my dad. If I have all that my dad had I would be filled with greed, alcoholism, and relative anger at all times. If I concentrate on the Father, as in spirit, I can feel the difference. We inherit objects as well as traits from our parents. The kingdom of heaven is ours if we tune into it.  How about you, gentle reader?  Do you stand to inherit the earth?

Class Wars

April 19, 2014 — 5 Comments


Americans have trouble understanding the whole British royalty and fancy person hierarchy. My own British family has been fairly fancy in their time, but I have nothing to show for it except my family tree. In history brutal repression of common people, or peasants, was the way commerce was conducted. The United States is returning to a system of government that separates the elite in a special world of privilege and security while the majority of the population is loosing security of every kind.  Our country goes around bullying other nations about lack of democratic systems that protect the population.  Who will come to the United States and reprimand us for this recent class and income discrepancy we are growing?  Since many around the world are already hardened against the United States for our politics about war and violence, the facts about our upper crust citizens will cause more disgust for our economically bifurcated culture.  In an odd twist of fate, Americans who often use Brit accents and royalty to make fun of snooty class struggles, are making big strides creating inequity of our own.  What do you think will happen to our reputation abroad, gentle reader?

 

Self Evident, Truths

March 9, 2014 — 2 Comments

The Declaration of Independence is often quoted saying:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

  • What then, is true about our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness?
  • Have the tables turned on middle class and working class tax payers, or is poverty the new happiness?
  • Does the government work as it is intended or is it off the rails?
  • Where is the Creator and what can be done to get some clarity about these rights that are not distributed evenly?

I believe that our short-sighted system that rewards politicians for serving special interests of all kinds is dishonest.  Lobbyists and lawyers write the laws that favor their patrons.  Our lawmakers just pass them with little revision or thought.  This is not what the taxpayers intended when we paid our taxes.  I wrote both a senator and a congressman about serious issues in the last year. The senator has not responded at all.  The congressman never answered my concern but sent me an e-mail asking me to rate the quality of the help I had received from his office.  I replied that there had been none, so it was not applicable.  There has still been no response.  I give it an F.

Education is the way out of this hole in which we find American democracy.  It seems that the people who know who government works are abusing the systems, while the majority are not well served by the results.  iCivics is addressing the problem of a large undereducated population that does not participate in elections.  In the future we can hope educated people will make the bureaucracy responsive to all citizens.  Learning how the government is intended to work is the first step toward making it work.