Saudi Arabia has hundreds of princes in a family whose tree looks like more like a forest than a ficus. One of them found his way to my home for a birthday party just before 9/11. He wasn't invited by me but by the guest of honor. He was handsome, educated and dressed like everyone else. To look at him or to hear him speak, you would not imagine he grew up in the richest desert on the planet. His limo and driver waited in front of the house while he came to the door with a gift for me and one for my friend. Mine was a 25 year old bottle of scotch and Donald's, the birthday boy's, was a $2,000.00 leather jacket.
We estimated that he earned, by heritage, $240,000.00 a minute. A minute. He cannot possibly spend his trust in his lifetime or many others. For every minute oil is pumped out of the sand in his backyard, his balance grows as does all of his brother's, cousin's, and future children.
He and I shared a drink and private conversation out on my deck while the party guests were playing a drinking game inside. He was gracious and kind as we discussed the political differences of our countries. We discussed the differences of our criminal justice system and our governments financial systems. In his country, the rich are the rich and will always be the rulers. The poor are condemned, beheaded and stoned to death for infractions we tolerate on our daytime soaps.
He said he wanted change in his country. He said both of our countries had room for improvement. He said there is so much our citizens do not know about our governments actions because our media shows us only one side. We do not live as freely as we think. His family and the Bush family are business partners. He didn't say it, it's common knowledge.
I remembered our conversation last night while watching the news. It was mentioned that this bailout "catastrophe" was actually orchestrated in the White House to allow a plundering of the treasury before the election.
We may never know what really goes on behind the door of the oval office. Papers and records are sealed for decades and by then, they and we are history.
I've called my congressional representatives and told them what I think. That we don't need to sign a bill this week. We need to keep our heads, not panic and move with deliberate intention to see this for what it is.
Let's not be manipulated by fear any longer. Let's slow down, pause, before we respond.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
$700,000,000,000.00
It all started back when people thought they could buy a house real cheap, put in a new carpet, throw some paint on it and then double the price the next month. Greed.
"Flip that house" became a mantra! Greed.
Then the appraisers got in on the act. For a few extra dollars they would price a property up ten, twenty or a hundred grand so they could get that equity line of credit to pay off that credit card debt and put a down payment on a new car they couldn't afford....greed. Or they took money out of the equity a few months after they bought it so they could show a significant balance in their savings account to qualify for another loan they couldn't really afford to pay back, gambling on the market bubble to continue to expand. Greed.
I knew a realtor who forged W2 docs to get her clients to qualify for loans she knew they couldn't afford because she wanted to sell the house.....greed.
Of course the mortgage companies and banks played their part but don't think for one minute it is all Wall Street and our inept and corrupt government. This is a condition brought on by the idea of greed. The consciousness of greed can be as simple as not sharing our food with a hungry friend, not offering to buy a flower for the lonely old lady across the street, or not going to that fund raiser for back packs for school kids.
Are you ever selfish? Do you ever withold compliments and appreciation? Did you say no to the $10 donation asked of you for the "Stand Up For Cancer" campaign? How many times have you splurged on yourself, your kids, your house, your car wash, and walked right by a homeless woman sitting on the ground in front of the 7-11? A million homeless in America. Hundreds of thousands hungry, in America. Have you ever taken a tax deduction that was "slightly" inflated in hopes you wouldn't be audited?
Have you ever taken more than you have given in your business practice? Over charging clients, or standing silently by while your boss does or your company does? Have you ever taken sick days for a vacation or vacationed on the company bill because you could get away with it? Ever take home supplies from the office for your kids school project? I know these seems like incidental violations but the energy of these actions are not confined to your space.
You only have to turn on reality television to see the greed and cheating and angry judgements of the average citizen. So, even if you are not guilty of ever cheating, lying, or taking more than you give, there a thousand others out there who are and it is up to each of us to be the vibration of the change that needs to start the shift for honesty.
This current economic condition is a reflection of a universal mindset. We are all responsible for it. It is the consciousness of greed and we are all part of the problem when we hold the energy of desire for things above the desire for Peace.
The world is a reflection of you. The way out is to look at the buttons that are being pushed while watching the news and reading the papers. What are the words you've been using this week? How are you judging the leaders, the CEO's the administration? Are you blaming the homeowners or the banks? Are you calling them idiots and greedy bastards? I've heard and read a great deal of outrage and I understand it and I believe it is justified, but I also believe that nothing happens on the big stage that doesn't start in the mass consciousness.
Identify your buttons, and go inside and look to see if the shoe fits your foot. When have you been dishonest? When have you given less than you received? Where do you hold the energy of guilt, greed or resentment? Have to spent more on your home, your plastic doodads from WalMart, your car washes and wardrobe than you can afford? How far into debt have you gone? How much more do you spend a month than you bring in? How much have you helped charitable organizations or local schools? I have more friends than I can count who are in debt to credit card companies and banks for over and above the amount the earn every year. This is why it pushes their buttons that CEO's and Corporations have been so irresponsible and greedy because inside, they know, that they too have been fiscally irresponsible and greedy, wanting more back than they put in.
We are being called to heal our collective guilt and greedy consciousness. We are being called by Spirit to simplify our lives and correct our vision and our point of attraction. How many plastic doodads do you need from WalMart anyway? How many shoes can a person wear? How big and new does your car have to be? How many cars do you have to have? How much do you think you have to spend on fancier wheels, make-up, bigger homes and clothes?
The average American has a 0 balance in their savings account. This isn't new. This has been the truth for several decades. It's not because of recent economic downfall. Money comes in and we go shopping. It's the American way. A few days after 9/11 President George W. Bush got on the television and told us not to change out lifestyle....go shopping. We don't even have to leave our homes to do it. We can sit in front of the television or computer and spend thousands without even getting dressed. We are an addicted society. It's time for some cold turkey, tough love.
I think this will be our greatest hour when we look in the mirror and decide to stop the insane borrowing and spending that has gotten us into this situation. We are not victims of a market gone mad. We are the puppets that buy the advertizing message that more stuff will make us happy, pretty, loveable, desireable, get us more friends, sex, power, and make us feel better about ourselves. We are ALL the problem and.....the good news is....we are all the solution.
If we change the energy of our emotions and thoughts and actions, we can shift the global experience. Garner the collective anger and use it to take action on a personal level as well as in your community.
1. Forgive yourself for any overt action you have taken in your past that was not aligned with honesty and love. (See Climb For Atonement)
2. Make a budget to pay off your debt before you buy one more toy, dish, blanket or chair, and stick to it.
3. Plan a holiday around your community food bank list. When buying a toy for the Toy Drive, choose one that doesn't encourage war and violence (guns and video games), petty consumption (Barbie and Monster Trucks) or can't be recylced.
4. Rule of Five. Go out and take five actions of anonymous giving.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
My daughter is celebrating her 33rd birthday this weekend. My 88 year old mother is celebrating the new high profile toilet I had installed in her bathroom today. Shanon will receive her birthday card tomorrow with a check for her to buy the skin care products she loves from Arbonne. My mother will be thrilled that I am painting her bathroom this weekend. My daughter is expecting me to come to Phoenix again next month to help her with the kids because she now has two jobs outside of the home. One, teaching pre-school, and the other as a server at Red Robin. My mother expects me to sit with her as she watches Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. My daughter would love it if I would build her a new headboard.
I'm at the 'between' stage of my life. Between taking care of my mother, who has dementia and supporting my daughter and grandchildren. I drive or fly between Phoenix and Los Angeles every six weeks or so. I'm beginning to feel the pinch.....the squeeze between two powerful forces....dedicated mother and responsible daughter.
What do I really want? Do I want to sell my condo in Redondo Beach and move to Phoenix to be closer to my babies? Do I want to keep my mother happy in the home she recognizes as long as she still can? Do I move to Denver or Oregon and build a 'green' home with plenty of land for a vegetable garden and chicken coop for fresh eggs and well for spring water? I have some thinking to do.
I'm at the 'between' stage of my life. Between taking care of my mother, who has dementia and supporting my daughter and grandchildren. I drive or fly between Phoenix and Los Angeles every six weeks or so. I'm beginning to feel the pinch.....the squeeze between two powerful forces....dedicated mother and responsible daughter.
What do I really want? Do I want to sell my condo in Redondo Beach and move to Phoenix to be closer to my babies? Do I want to keep my mother happy in the home she recognizes as long as she still can? Do I move to Denver or Oregon and build a 'green' home with plenty of land for a vegetable garden and chicken coop for fresh eggs and well for spring water? I have some thinking to do.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Deepak Chopra on Sarah Palin
Deepak Chopra
Obama and the Palin Effect
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national
psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly
illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the
Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she
outdoes former Vice President Dan Quail as an unlikely choice, given
her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of
governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents,
which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth
of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Gillian is a towering
international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her
forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barrack Obama, in essence his shadow,
deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst
impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the
psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue,
and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear,
revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For
millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they
don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our
higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an
unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a
verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is
a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I
recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not
welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be
helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance
speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to
celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
-- Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a
return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
-- Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to
repair America's image abroad.
-- Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a
claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family,
don't need to be heeded.
-- Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation
that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
-- Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
-- Reform -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out
corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who
doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right,
which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is
liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different
from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism
takes too much effort and globalize is a foreign threat. The
radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack,"
and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course,
is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time.
She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely
reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is
superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of
conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own
good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by
raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to
change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a
vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just
conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is
a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the
shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No
one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she
brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate
honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling
persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have
brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see
what we are getting, without disguise.
Obama and the Palin Effect
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national
psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly
illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the
Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she
outdoes former Vice President Dan Quail as an unlikely choice, given
her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of
governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents,
which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth
of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Gillian is a towering
international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her
forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barrack Obama, in essence his shadow,
deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst
impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the
psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue,
and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear,
revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For
millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they
don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our
higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an
unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a
verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is
a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I
recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not
welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be
helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance
speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to
celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
-- Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a
return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
-- Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to
repair America's image abroad.
-- Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a
claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family,
don't need to be heeded.
-- Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation
that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
-- Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
-- Reform -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out
corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who
doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right,
which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is
liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different
from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism
takes too much effort and globalize is a foreign threat. The
radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack,"
and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course,
is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time.
She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely
reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is
superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of
conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own
good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by
raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to
change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a
vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just
conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is
a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the
shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No
one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she
brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate
honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling
persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have
brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see
what we are getting, without disguise.
Friday, September 05, 2008
The Mud Slingers of Political Conventions
Blah, blah, blah.....I am so sick of hearing them lie, lie and lie some more.
Barack Obama said that John McCain claims $5,000,000 personal income to be the level we should measure the average American family before taxing them. McCain was obviously kidding when he made that statement and even said so right after he said it. But Obama used it anyway as McCain predicted he would.
McCain lied when he said Obama's plan will raise taxes on all Americans. Obama's plan does no such thing.
Palin lied when she said Obama has never passed any legislation and falsely claimed (again) to have opposed the Bridge To Nowhere .
Biden lied when he said Obama has been right about everything while McCain has been wrong.
I'm so sick of the lies and mud slinging.
Bill Clinton lied when he said he never had sex with that woman. What woman hasn't he had sex with...I mean besides me?
Hillary Clinton lied when she claimed she was under sniper fire in Bosnia and that she didn't know about the FALN pardons.
How do you know a polititian is lying? Their lips are moving.
And don't even get me started on Keith Olberman and Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Chris Mathews. Blah, Blah and more blah!
It's not about the issues, as McCain's manager said, it's about personalities. What? Excuse me? It's not about the economy, the environment, foreign policies, national security, illegal immigration, failing education, health care and social security? No? Reeeeaally?
So, its about Palin's prego unmarried daughter, Obama's church, McCain's "maverick" label,(anger management problem if you ask me.) and on and on. I don't care! I want someone who will address the ISSUES clearly, precisely with vision and real solutions without the anger, lies, finger pointing, blame, deceit, bribes, and MUD SLINGING!
I guess it's true. I'm an idealist. I somehow thought we Americans were better than this. Yet, still, after these two ridiculous conventions and the two years of positioning leading up to them, I still love my country, even though I am often embarrassed about our behavior.
Barack Obama said that John McCain claims $5,000,000 personal income to be the level we should measure the average American family before taxing them. McCain was obviously kidding when he made that statement and even said so right after he said it. But Obama used it anyway as McCain predicted he would.
McCain lied when he said Obama's plan will raise taxes on all Americans. Obama's plan does no such thing.
Palin lied when she said Obama has never passed any legislation and falsely claimed (again) to have opposed the Bridge To Nowhere .
Biden lied when he said Obama has been right about everything while McCain has been wrong.
I'm so sick of the lies and mud slinging.
Bill Clinton lied when he said he never had sex with that woman. What woman hasn't he had sex with...I mean besides me?
Hillary Clinton lied when she claimed she was under sniper fire in Bosnia and that she didn't know about the FALN pardons.
How do you know a polititian is lying? Their lips are moving.
And don't even get me started on Keith Olberman and Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Chris Mathews. Blah, Blah and more blah!
It's not about the issues, as McCain's manager said, it's about personalities. What? Excuse me? It's not about the economy, the environment, foreign policies, national security, illegal immigration, failing education, health care and social security? No? Reeeeaally?
So, its about Palin's prego unmarried daughter, Obama's church, McCain's "maverick" label,(anger management problem if you ask me.) and on and on. I don't care! I want someone who will address the ISSUES clearly, precisely with vision and real solutions without the anger, lies, finger pointing, blame, deceit, bribes, and MUD SLINGING!
I guess it's true. I'm an idealist. I somehow thought we Americans were better than this. Yet, still, after these two ridiculous conventions and the two years of positioning leading up to them, I still love my country, even though I am often embarrassed about our behavior.
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