Japan

What does it mean for the Future that Japan has been so seriously hit by disaster?
The Talking Heads are going to extremes to reassure Americans that none of this will affect them.
Watch FOX and CNN.  You will hear 'expert' after 'expert' downplaying the impact of this disaster.  It is trippy, like Orwellian doublespeak how their soothing tones contradict the images we are seeing.  But not as trippy as it could be, for they seem to have carefully left out the most upsetting images.  They say the death toll could reach 10,000, and yet I haven't seen footage of floating bodies.  They must be there, where the cameras aren't pointing.  We are allowed to see floating cars and buildings but not mangled Japanese bodies.  American media wants us to focus on more local concerns, and human carnage might upset us too much.  They have to report on Japan because its the news, but rest assured, they will put their spin on it and try to calm us down.

But the fact is that a 9.0 magnitude Earthquake was bigger than Japan expected and bigger than they were prepared for.  And this is a nation whose identity has been shaped by having to respond to disaster.  What could this mean?

The Earthquake shifted the axis of the Planet by 6.5 inches, and speeded up the length of the planetary day by more than a microsecond.  The fact is that Earth undergoes such fluctuations as part of her Natural cycle.  So when the experts say that "this" won't affect us long-term, they aren't exactly lying.  But they are leaving out that it is also true that these (and other) fluctuations in the Planet's cycle have been tending toward the more chaotic for the last decade or so.  Enough little fluctuations piling up leads to a big change.

Here is what the Fox believes: the Planet is changing.  For too long exploited and abused by a Human population that exceeds sustainable limits, by a Human culture that too slowly pursues sustainable forms of survival, the Earth is feeling sick.  And so She starts to wobble.  She starts to erupt and surge and re-shape Her own surface.  She changes Her Climate, slowly but surely, creating colder winters and hotter summers, more Winds and more Storms.  To Humans (and other Species), these 'fluctuations' are disasters.  But it is the Earth evolving.  As Life becomes harder on Earth for Human Society, either Humans, or Society, or both, will have to change as well.  Or die.  Either outcome (us changing or dying) will, in the long run, benefit the Planet.  Earth shall remain, but will Her People?

I'm not big on Apocalypticism but I do believe there is a Natural balance to Life on this Planet, and we can opt to be part of that Balance, or not.  Currently, as a global society, we are opting to live out-of-Balance.  Why?  Because it is in the interest of government and corporations to live out-of-Balance.  A society where everything is harder makes us more gadget-dependent, more dependent on the made-up concept of money, more dependent on having to work long hours.  Work 8 hours to stay alive 16.  To live in-Balance, in harmony, makes government, and gadgets, less necessary.  Means less money circulates.  Means less opulent wealth at the top.

I believe that we can expect continuing large-scale disasters until we have large-scale solutions to environmental and enviro-social problems.  I believe that if we treat the Planet justly we will be treated justly, but that if we treat Her unjustly we will suffer.

I do NOT believe that Japan 'deserved' this or that Japan in particular was targeted by the forces of Nature.  I simply think that the Balance is disturbed and Japan happened to be in the way when the Planet vomited forth a bit of Her rage and bile.

Revelation 12:15-17: "Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. ¹⁷ Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—"

Deep in the belly of the Earth there is an ancient bitterness which she must needs work out.  I hope my Life does much to relieve Her, to soothe Her rashworn vexations.  I hope my Music and my Medicine and my Writing can all make an impact, can change some Consciousness and unlock the positive, abundant Energy that I feel in my part of the World.  I pray this Energy can uplift and alleviate the Atmosphere, bringing L.I.F.E. (Love Is For Everything) to the Planet like the return of Abundant Spring.

But I see Two Futures for Humankind.  Which one we adopt is up to us.  All I can say is, the doublespeak has got to stop.  U.S. government, society, culture, religion, economics and media concerns are all threatened by the truth that the Earth is changing.  This is why they so rabidly deny the facts of Climate Change and why they are so frantic to reassure us in the face of 4 nuclear reactors leaking radiation and a magnitude 9.0 Earthquake jostling Japan 8 feet out of position.  That is why they conspire to conceal as much of the truth as they can, even as they reveal bits and pieces of it which they can 'explain away' or 'spin.'

Do not trust your government.  Ask a Tree what's going on.  He or she will tell you.
WE STILL HAVE TIME TO CHANGE.

One final thought: the news media reports on the amazing 'calm' of the Japanese people and keeps demonstrating how they are all digging in and supporting one another in this time.  I believe this is being reported in part because the news media wants US to be calm, so they are holding up the stoic Japanese as our psychological example.  On the other hand, I also believe it to be true that the Japanese are calm and prepared.  I think the Japanese are smart, and that when Japan recovers from this disaster you will see that same character trait revealed in the sense that they will rebuild in a smart, green sort of way.  And this is Natural as well.  The Japanese people, through all the destroyals they have faced, have evolved and adapted in a way which makes them better suited to disaster than, say, Americas would probably be.  Over time, the fittest will survive.  The Human race can evolve by following that example.

I pray that Divine Comfort bathes the hearts of the Japanese as they struggle with what to do with the pieces of their shattered lives.

I also pray that we prepare for the Post-Gasoline World.  I predict it comes to you by 2025.

Animal Language

This just confirmed by a PBS "Nature" documentary: Crows communicate with one another linguistically. So here's my question: doesn't that cast doubt on the whole ridiculous dichotomy that Humans believe, which posits Man as intelligent and Animals as 'dumb'? Just because we don't speak or understand Crow (or other Animal languages, for that matter), does that mean they don't think? Don't philosophize? Don't gossip? Don't pray? I believe Animals of every species do all these things in their own way.  I believe that the biologies of Humans and Animals explain relatively little difference between the way we think and the way they do.  I believe that the cultural differences between us explain far more.  Man has cut himself off a great deal from the culture of the Animals.

But this was not always the case.  In primitive societies Humans paid a lot more attention to wild Animals.  Native Americans, for example, learned the story of the Creation from things told to them by Ravens.  The Coyote led many of the early Americans through troubled times at the beginning of their time on this Continent.  Aboriginal cultures in Africa, Australia, and the Pacific Islands also feature much Human-Animal communication in their early mythologies.  Either modern Humans are far more 'intelligent' than their forebears in these aboriginal cultures (which I doubt), or there is something to these old myths.

I believe in inter-species communication.  I believe it is a lost art, but that it can be learned again.  All it takes is lots of time in Nature, patience, and attention to detail.  80% (or something) of all communication is non-verbal.  So even without understanding Crow 'words,' by giving a Crow attention and respect you can intuitively communicate with him or her.  I believe the same is true for many other species - it just requires getting into the Natural mindset, and discarding all your societal notions about the 'special place of Humans' or whatever nonsense.

I believe Man can learn about the Universe by communicating with Animals, who haven't forgotten as much about the Spirit World as we have.  Remember: it was Man who was expelled from the Garden.  For Animals, it still exists.  It is all around them.  Only we are oblivious to it, and spend our time cutting down its Trees and polluting its Rivers.

Some look to eschatology or religion to try to figure out what's around the bend for Humans.  Some even hope for aliens to come to Earth and teach us "how to survive without killing our planet."  But I think that Animals have the answers to these things, and more.
-KiJjiT

"A Murder of Crows" by PBS
http://video.pbs.org/video/1621910826/

Your Heart

You are composed of energy.  Your constant, gentle heartbeat is a steady, rhythmic pulse that generates happiness.  When your heart is rightly cultivated, it pumps not blood but LIFE into your body.

Keep your Heart healthy.  Do not beseige it with improper diet or strain it with too many worries.  And any worry is a worry too many, since worry adds to, not solves, problems.

Allow your Heart time and opportunity to rejoice in itself.  Set goals that your heart may leap to accomplish things.  Take risks that your heart may know gain.  Find Love even if you first find Pain.  With a long, simple Life, give your Heart reasons to be glad its in your chest.

Live the happiest, most successful, most spiritually intense life that you can imagine.  Seek every adventure.  Dream every dream.  When you do this, your Heart will guide you gently to the grave, with all your Life at peace.

FANE.  For A New Earth.

The Winds of March

The River of January flowed through the Flux of February and now we begin the Winds of March.
WOMAN = Winds Of March Are New.

What stirs in the Winds of March?  The Winds of March are an Invisible Thing, though you can see their effects.

March, yielding Spring, a young goddess in blossom, brings Life to the Earth.  Abundify!  Bless!
Spring is the WOMAN of March.  But March is a Lion, and March is a Lamb.  March is a He and then there's a She.  Spring. The WOMAN.

March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb.  March is in-and-out.  It moves in an interweaving pattern.  It goes all the way in, it comes all the way out.  Angstrom to Universe.  Zooming and Expanding.  All sizes, atomic to galactic.  One lense small, another lense great.  Each successive lense more small or more great than anything you've seen before.  All scale, all power.  Brought to bear in the Winds of March.  These Winds can make you or break you.  Be glad they have smiled on you.  And on all your fortunes.  March is a wonderful time.

While the Earth remaineth...

While the Earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, shall not cease.  The Earth shall remain.  Even in destroyals, She remains.  She changes.  The Earth cannot be wholly stripped away.  So long as it remaineth, then, She is preserved.  That is what this promise teaches: that Earth shall not decay.  So long as she remains, she will be abundantly blessed with Seedtimes, and Harvests.  So long as Earth shall remain, there shall be Seeds and Harvests.  There is no Earth prophesied where the vegetable life forms cease to reproduce.  Plant life will live along with the Earth, until Her very last day.  But since plant life preserves the Earth, we must assume that A + B = C.  A permanently vegetative Planet can do nothing but Remain.  The Earth shall Remain.

Remnant, magic remnant.  In every world destroyal a remnant is preserved.  This remnant renews the whole.  Noah was saved, a remnant.  And in him the whole Earth was renewed.

Doubt the naysayers who insit the World Shall End.  The World shall change.  Shall be renewed.  A Remnant Shall Remain.

Into the New Earth that is emerging, into the Rediscovered Garden, into the Flesh of Eden, may We Remain.  May We, the human race, be in the Remnant.  May the Man and the Fox and the Dolphin and the Whale Remain together.  May the Trees not perish, the Rivers not fail, the Herbs not cease Abundance.  May life grow, and bless, abundify the Earth.  May She be Replenished.  May Life Breathe Anew.

This is a call, this is an awakening.  These are magic words to unite the flow, unite the Energies, unite the Universe.  You may sing them with me.  You may sing them All Creation.  Abundify the Earth!

What We Do to Meat

Eating Meat is not bad.  Its what we do to it.

 

From the very beginning of the process until the end... Consider the way we farm and raise raise meat. The fact that it is inhumane isn't even the point, though of course it is very inhumane.

 

You can kill an animal for food and there is nothing wrong with that. We are a partially predatory species and hunting is in our Nature, our genes. But to raise an animal in conditions of abject suffering -- to speed up their lifestyles with hormones and to confine them in steel factories devoid of any Natural light... To raise an entire generation without providing them a single comfort... Not even a noiseless place to sleep where they are free from the prospect of mutilation... Where they are not allowed to have families... Where chickens are artificially hatched by machines instead of hens! Where calves suckle metal arms instead of their mother's teats! And then to kill them... not with a bullet but with a CONVEYOR BELT!!! Where they aren't even given the option to skip away or put up a fight but where their legs are tied and they are automatically moved towards a grisly, mangling death. Where they are splattered with the blood of the Animal in front of them before they themselves die...

Besides this, we are stripping the Earth itself of its vegetative cover in order to raise enough grain to feed these Animals! To mass-produce them in far greater numbers than they would naturally exist! Slaughter every cow and chicken currently in the system, today, but then stop, and you wouldn't see me shed a single tear for the removal of these animals. Cows and chickens are so plentious that they are literally a vermin that is eating the planet to death. We could eat the crops we are raising for them and have more than half our acres back for parks, for clean air, for recreation. So much more wealth would be available in the economy. We could pay back the national debt with the money we saved on dropping the meat industry.

And then, if you get a craving for meat, by all means, please go out into the Woods and kill something! Since there are more Woods at this point (having recovered them from farms), there are more Animals, and you may have your pick! I would not even bother to make you get a hunting license! Kill as much as you can eat! Fish to your heart's content! Heck, raise a cow or chicken of your own if you really like the taste of beef and poultry specifically... But why ruin the economy, bankrupt the government and maintain the torture of millions of unnecessary cattle just to have a burger on every block.... Millions of which are thrown away every day into dumpsters, half eaten and often wholly uneaten.

With the situation this bad, every ONE person who chooses to give up meat even ONE meal per week... is making a significant change for the better. Why go all the way?? Every action counts.

I, personally, care enough about this issue to go ALL THE WAY. I lack discipline... I am not a saint after all, just an idealist. I have my own tastes. I like McDonald's double cheeseburgers, of all things, although I hate myself after wasting the money on such a cheap thrill. So I am not there yet, but I am evolving. I am training myself to depend on less. I am cultivating new tastes. I am trying new things. I am not looking for the ONE BEST WAY TO LIVE. I am trying to look for A BETTER WAY. My way.

So far, I know that VEGAN > VEGETARIAN > any other number of small steps, ranging from the one who only eats fish to the one who only eats fish & poultry to the one who eats all of it, but no pork, to the guy who eats as wide a range as possible but seldom.

I want my diet, my clothing, my electronic usage, the type of transportation I use, etc., etc., etc., all to reflect my ethic of treating the Earth right. Of being a GOOD STEWARD.

Don't you?

A Better Way to Eat

I think there is a better way to eat than the way we normally eat.  Whether you are a vegetarian or a meat-eater, there is always a better way to eat.  Part of being a responsible human is eating RIGHT... But that is nonsense.  There are a thousand diets and a thousand lifestyles, and there is no RIGHT way to eat.  There are just better and worse ways.  I can identify several eating choices that would be better than the one I am currently observing, and it is my goal to move toward better eating.  But I would not be foolish enough to say I knew what the BEST way is to eat.  I can just look for a better way, and move toward it when I think I've found it.  And that's really all any of us can do.  We're all trying to eat better in our own ways, and over time we have started to realize kind of what works and what doesn't.  And that's the whole way people make diets, by selecting different eating strategies, turning them into rules, and then calling them This or That Diet.

Rather than prescribing a diet, I would like to talk to you about better and worse eating strategies, and from them, if you, like me, are trying to learn a better way to eat, then perhaps you would benefit from some of the ones I have identified.  Or perhaps you could leave some eating strategies of your own in the comments below, because I am interested.

EATING A LOT is generally considered to be a poor eating strategy.  For one thing, its expensive.  For another, it makes you overweight.  In our culture, overweight not only means unhealthy it also sometimes cruelly is interpreted to mean uncool or even ugly.  I think coolness and beauty are both qualities of the spirit, but I do think it is best not to be overweight if you can help it, because overweight people have less energy and cannot enjoy as much of life, because life is action.

EATING FAST FOOD is a horrible way to eat because the food is of questionable quality, very messy, and society's most fattening.

EATING FRUIT is an excellent strategy because fruit is ridiculously cheap, available everywhere from farmer's markets to convenience stores to FOR FREE in certain trees that you can find in many parks and public places.  Fruit is nutritious and unbelievably delicious.  Fruit doesn't have to be prepared but can be eaten raw, at the ready, most times even unpeeled.

EATING ORGANIC is an excellent strategy because organic food is of the highest quality both nutritiously and taste wise.  Organic, however, can be expensive, which in my book lowers the excellence of the strategy by several degrees.  Each person must balance out for themselves whether the pros of organic outweigh the cons, but I have estimated in favor of organic food - whenever I can afford it.

THROWING FOOD AWAY is a horrible eating strategy.  Food production rates are unsustainably high throughout the world, and in some cases, food itself is still scarce.  This contradicts logic, until you take into account the stockpiling of food and the wasting of food by the wealthiest nations, and the wealthiest individuals within those nations.  But seriously, NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE EATING, even if it is the greasiest, most unhealthy burger, please do not throw it away unless it is for real needing to be thrown away or will be a health risk.

EATING LEFTOVERS saves you prep times, saves you money, saves the Planet from the Scourge of Food Overproduction.

FOREGOING MEAT, whether altogether or even just one meal a week.  Opting for a bagel with cream cheese instead of a sausage biscuit.  Having a cheese quesadilla instead of a chicken quesadilla.  This is an excellent eating strategy because meat is high in fats, low in energy, makes you complicit in the killing of an Animal who had a life of its own, and is EXPENSIVE.  The human body, biologically, requires not a single nutrient that cannot be supplied by a vegetarian diet.  Even so-called "animal proteins" are manufactured naturally by your own body given the right plant ingredients in your diet.

EATING STUFF YOU HUNTED YOURSELF is a good strategy if you really have a meat craving.  Fishing and hunting are both enjoyable activities, they get you out in Nature, and plus, you will have an appreciation for the food you are eating that McDonald's could never duplicate.  Plus, food you killed yourself is FREE.

EATING LOCALLY PRODUCED FOOD is an excellent strategy because you are helping out your friends and neighbors involved in the production, which makes everybody think you're a helluva fella.  It makes you a bit of an expert on local tastes and eating joints and farmers and just what's up in your community.  It makes you an interesting conversationalist.  Its good for the Environment because chances are your 'local farmer' isn't deforesting vast acres to run his factory meat mill.  Also, food produced locally doesn't have to be loaded on diesel-consuming trucks and carted all over the Nation instead of eaten by the people next door to it.  So, less gas.  Less pollution.  Less corporate bullcrap.  BETTER TASTE.  Cuz there's nothing like the taste of stuff that grows in your own state's dirt.

DRINKING WATER is an excellent strategy because WATER can be found in abundance, FOR FREE!!!!!  Get a bottle, fill up at a water fountain or at your own tap!  Keep it with you!  Next time you are thirsty, you won't have to stop for a Coke!  Cokes are expensive and unhealthy and after a while they start to lose their taste.  If you are the kind of person who has been drinking a soda for the past year just about everyday, I GUARANTEE YOU that you have lost the ability to taste that soda, and simply haven't noticed the loss.  For proof, go without it for a week, then come back and take a gulp.  It will shock you to rediscover the original taste that you had forgotten about.  So really... if you aren't even tasting Coca Cola when you drink it habitually, why are you wasting the money and empty calories?

LIMITING DAIRY is a good idea, too.  In my own mind I think of vegans as the saints of the Human Food Chain.  I aspire to be one of them as I once was before.  (I am a fallen-from-grace vegan).  But you don't have to give up all dairy to make a difference!  Limit it.  Because dairy is also costly, often high in fat, and has a large carbon footprint.

EATING FOR FREE is an amazing strategy, because chances are, if it is available for free, that means it is not in high demand, and stands a chance of being thrown away.  Refer to above to see that throwing food away is a horrible eating strategy.  These days, any dollar you save on food and put into savings will help out your future ENORMOUSLY.  The economy has never been more unsound so why waste money on food when you can get it for free?

Where can you get food for free?
     -- If you find it in Nature (like growing on a Tree in a park).  Looking at a few field guides will identify countless species for you, then all you have to do is look while having a pleasant walk in the Woods.
     -- If it is about to be thrown away by less scrupulous persons.  (This happens ALL THE TIME.)  Your friends aren't finishing their food at the restaurant and they aren't asking for a box... Swallow your pride and ask for the box!  Also, ask around and you may find out that a local restaurant throws away its unpurchased food at a certain time each day or each week.  There is nothing wrong with the food, and they may give it to you.  A place at the college I graduated from does this, and they have good food, well-packaged, and they actually give people a chance to take it off their hands before they throw it away.
      -- At a friend or relative's house!  And no, I am not talking about being a freeloader.  If you eat food that someone else gives you, you should be polite and return the favor.  But if you are, in fact, having a short month, that is the very best time to go over to someone's house for dinner!  I am sure they will not mind.

For some people, getting food for free is unfortunately the only way they can get food, or at least, food in the quantities they require.  These folks have been led to eat straight out of trash cans, which is certainly not ideal, but nevertheless, can sustain them.  And there are soup kitchens.  And if there's not, there needs to be.  If you really want to make a difference, volunteer or contribute to one some time.  And then you can use them if you ever need them, without feeling the slightest twinge of guilt, or of feeling like you are getting a handout.

Eating insects.  The fact remains, eating cows, chickens, and pigs, as they are currently produced in the United States Meat Industry, is such a destructive process that truly, eating insects is a much better strategy.  1,417 different species of arthropod are edible to humans, all are more nutritious than eating mammals or birds.  The idea sounds strange but people of 300 different cultures all have insects as a normal part of their diet... And even in the West certain insect dishes are considered delicacies.  Honey, for God's sake, is an insect product, and its downright delicious, and there's nothing weird about it.  Insects can be found in the Wild, for FREE, if you are ever in a pickle and have no money for food.

Just a few thoughts, friends.  Munch on them and digest them and then leave something behind for me.