I remember reading a book, “The Weapon Shops of Isher”. the weapons could not be fired as an act of aggression, they could only be fired in self defense. They worked as a deterrent to war, and against violent crime. It upset the balance of power. I wonder what would help with equality among humans? I wonder what would bring balance to us all? I found some sites that discuss the different views of raising our awareness of Loving, Kind Beings. We are dealing with a shift in economics, a change in our natural environment, resource allocation, a large number of people with little resources, and all those and more are increasing in intensity. We have a fascination with the different inventions brought by technology. We have changed the lives of many using concepts developed out of economics. We have helped people with our understanding of biology and other sciences. A lot of this has happened because we have discovered how to use fossil fuel energy. What we have failed to do is learn, over and over, how to treat each other with respect and dignity. The Wisdom of ancient times is difficult to learn new by each individual as [...]
Looking in the mirror, he noticed the wrinkles around his eyes, reminding him of a river journey with a friend, laughing for days and seeing white wrinkles amid the tan lines. Today, my face is tan and rounded somewhat, perhaps from the beard, going gray around the edges. There is that combination of youth and age that defies our usual indication of time in a body. A smile is often present and there is something about brown eyes that can tighten into a focus when speaking directly to someone. My niece was at a family reunion that I did not attend and she told me my grandmother’s last name meant bent willow, which I find interesting. There is a northern European look about me, heavy set and I think short, or stout might fit. Am I pleasant to look at? Only when I am fun to be around. But my portrait is not that, it is in my song: I’m a child of the desert, hot burning sand And a friend to the buzzard circling the bleaching bones of a man I spent my contemplation under a pinyon tree And a nut fell down and hit me and that’s what [...]
It is night here. I had a dream that I was listening to music at a concert and the music finished. It had been instrumental music with drums and percussion and other sounds that I can’t remember. A musician spoke, saying the concert was over and that he had not said much with words because the music spoke for them. It has been over an hour since that experience and I am awake, still. My mind is overactive, running through a range of thoughts that I can usually avoid in daylight. i think about being unemployed until I can “officially” retire. I think about my part in what we have done to our environment and our world. I think of the worry and fear that permeates our existence, and how much of that is our own doing, our own actions, that we followed so easily. I think of the anger and rage that I see in so many places in the different media, and how easy it is to step into that state of mind. I think that Loving Kindness is a means to overcome all that I find to be negative in my world. In my dreams, I have [...]
I met a woman a few days ago, the daughter of my first grade teacher. She is a few years older than me. We grew up in a company town that was fifty miles from pavement, in one direction, and slowly the road became paved in the town and onward six to ten miles a year. This is an isolated place, and although there are many that lived in the town, most only lived there for two years, or four years. She and I shared a bit of memories, plus a promise to meet again and talk some more.
My Kindergarden year, the principal was Native American, the Navaho families would come to the general store on the weekend and buy food and goods, wearing silver and turquoise necklaces and bracelets, the women wearing colorful skirts, the men with silver belt buckles and cowboy hats.
During my elementary school years, I heard predictions of a future presented as fact, in which we would have unlimited energy at such a low cost as to be virtually free, with flying cars, and unlimited wealth. How easy to believe, as a child. Why did it not occur?
In the 1950′s,in a company town, most of the wives did not work. Think of moving to a community fifteen miles to the nearest towns, in a canyon of red sandstone, hot in the summer, with a general store, a pharmacy, a swimming pool for the summer, full of kids, and a tiny library. I wonder what those women did while their children went to school?
My Mother was a stay at home Mom. I was for the early years of my children’s upbrining. There was always something to do. I used that time to do much of my cleaning chores and laundry, etc, so I could do things with my children when they came home.
I would not have minded a small town with swimming pool, general store, pharmacy and the “library”.
I think that people found living in a company mining and mill town in the 1950′s and 1960′s was really different than being in an agricultural area, or in an industrial town with other amenities. The water left an orange stain, The television station came five or so years after we moved there. There was a constant flow of people moving in and moving out. there were some relationships that lasted, but, I think a number of the young adult women felt helpless and adrift in that town. i will learn more as I talk to the woman I met, as well as from my older siblings.