mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
Today we watch another mass shooting unfold in DC like the reality show that it is. The constant reminder of violence must have something to do with the growth and spread of violence. Lovingkindnessis the remedy for our growing epidemic of right and wrong. If everyone is busy deciding to be right and seek vengeance from those who are wrong who will get in touch with reality? Have we given up reality to watch it on television and tweet it live? How riveting will it be to live tweet the IPO of twitter? While some see gun control or calorie control as the way to solve of cultural problems, I believe we are highly delusional as a society. The guns and the health issues are symptoms of systems that do not work. Our distraction is killing us as individuals and as a culture.
Numb and nihilistic as we witness weather and violent torrents of human hatred wash over our land, we twist the truth by looking for the single issue or party on which to place blame. The events in the world must blur for those who play computer games as well as absorb world tragedy as it unfolds. The digital distance we have from other other humans and the truth is dragging us in a downward spiral of delusion. I wonder if people can wake up and think they are in the World of Warcraft…or some variation on it. We are cultivating violence and maya, when our only hope is in truth and lovingkindness. Each of us generates energy that fuels the hatred; none of us is perfect. On an individual basis we must take responsibility to feed and care for the soul of the world until al beings are free. This will require centering. This will require a shift in focus and a pivot in the direction of our thinking.
Today (April 16) in 1881 In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle. He is fined $8:00.
Guns and power are the entire subject of the cowboy and Indian movie genre. In my youth the entertainment was all about John Wayne and his ilk being in WWII with explosives, guns, and drama, or being in the Wild Wild West with the same scenario. My dad grew up in rural Kansas and Oklahoma, where guns were used for hunting, but he did not hunt because he had poor eyesight. He developed a love for fishing, which did not require keen sight. I personally learned to shoot a rifle when I was about 4 and my parents left me for a stay in Arkansas at my grandparents’ farm. I remember being very fond of it and liking it when my grandpa called me Annie Oakley. I thought target pracice was romantic and cool.
There were no guns in my house, so after my early youth I rarely saw anyone use guns anywhere. The first night I slept in Caracas when I was 13 I saw a murder from my hotel room on about the 10th floor of the Tamanaco. I freaked out entirely because there was lots of blood on the white shirt of the victim. The following day we learned that two hotel guards had shot each other, and that was the whole thing. Armed guards patrolled the petroleum company compound where I lived in rural Venezuela, which kind of resembled a military base. I thought nothing of it. Although I lived in Texas during high school, I still knew nobody who owned or shot guns.
The gun violence debate in the country is alien to my thinking. I am not comforted by the presence of guns. I don’t care to own or shoot one. The citizens who feel so strongly one way or the other about guns are starting to go haywire. The debate itself is getting scary.
mermaidcamp 