CONCLUSION

I suspect that most people can readily identify with the first few words of my preface, where I described my life and perhaps yours as well: “I’m on a very bumpy, work-in-progress ride…”

We all attempt to steer our lives, and the lives of those we care about, to be some semblance of ‘smooth sailing.’ Funny how smooth sailing always graphs like an out-of-control roller coaster, with frequent, seemingly random highs and lows dotting our ride of not-so-many years

As adults, besides experiencing all the events and relationships that got us to this point, we’ve learned a lot about what makes people, especially ourselves, evolve; and, importantly, that any changes we might want to consider can only begin now. Now being all there ever is.

So, it seems to me that what we need to do, at least every day, right at the start, is to survey our external and internal landscapes, looking first and foremost for beauty, joy, love, light, wonderful relationships and upcoming events, opportunities, exciting possibilities, etc, shouting out, with immense gratitude, all the positives in our lives.

Starting out this way, with an elevated mood, softens the blow for the negatives and challenges that confront us all, pretty much every day. In that arena, we first need awareness about the nature of these challenges, as well as our internal ‘setting’, so we can focus on the intentions we may have toward them, to optimize our resources in countering them as we look to return to a semblance of ‘smooth’.

We all recognize that there are things we can’t readily or easily change: the political scene, world hunger, wars, terrorists, disasters, religious conflicts, pandemics, climate change, racism, etc.

I believe that, quite often, the best we can do is to be on the positive side of all of these problems. Advocate, in our hearts, words and actions, for peace, compassion, reconciliation, love. Give generously to orgs, local, national and worldwide, that deliver food, supplies and hope to those in need; be true full-spectrum warriors – speak out against, even boycott - celebs, businesses and orgs that are bigoted; support the separation of church and state, but also stand strong for interfaith groups. Do our best to optimize energy efficiency, world interdependency and fairness, etc. Sometimes, keeping our vibe positive on every front is all we can do.

Other challenges take us back… back… way back.

We know that, as kids, nobody handed our parents a manual about how to optimally raise us. It is some consolation that most of us now know that our parents did the best they could. Turns out, their parents never got the manual either. We had more, or less, love; ditto discipline, ditto wealth, ditto siblings, etc. If our parents left us alone for too long, we felt abandoned. If they were always around us, we felt smothered. If they scolded us, we felt belittled. If they argued a lot, we felt responsible. Generalizations, of course, but they so often ring true.

Until we began school, home/family life was pretty much our whole life. We couldn’t detach from family, and that meant that our lives were ruled by their culture, religion, morality, finances, relatives, environs, prejudices, worldview, etc.

Lamont Satterly, in his fine book ‘Tattooed in the Cradle’ covers the above category like a glove; a thousand variations on the theme of our childhood years as they relate to the family milieu, and especially the cultural legacies that affected us, some of which stayed on as wounds that accompanied us into adulthood.

School broadened our sources of input but added new challenges, starting with how our parents reacted to new friends and ideas from classrooms. Then there was the variety of teachers and their legacies, teaching styles and innate empathy. Finally, among the kids themselves, were the comparative levels of athleticism, intelligence and appearance, plus prejudices, bullying, etc. No matter how good a childhood someone had, there were still plenty of challenges.

Next, I see three more platforms that heavily influence the minds, bodies and psyches of a great many kids, then and now: military, private and religious schools.

It’s important both as a reminder of some of the early influences on our lives, but also because we love our relatives and friends, and all their children, and humankind as a whole; we have reactions to schools with misguided formats for teaching children; this includes, of course, some subjects taught in public schools as well, spearheaded by Texas and other IMO comatose states belief in teaching courses on creationism, lying about history by calling slavery a minor cause of the Civil War, trampling civil rights, voter suppression and dozens of other assaults on humanity.

Military schools get my cockles up right from the start, with young minds confronted with uniforms, harsh discipline and especially, the hierarchical format that says, ‘always obey orders, never question.’ On the other hand, I see that, like the army itself, these schools advocate camaraderie and equality among students, clamping down on most forms of bigotry. If they actually succeed in that arena, they become a potentially positive experience for lazy, undisciplined, addicted, entitled and bigoted students.

IMO, private schools basically reek of entitlement, especially when the rich send their kids from pre-K through high school. It begets too much of an attitude of elitism, of avoiding and looking down on the ‘hoi polloi.’ No summers working for spending money. Instead, learning yachting and absorbing ‘new cultures’ by visiting Hilton hotels all over the world. Sorry to be so harsh, but we really need so much less of this rich white entitlement bullshit.

Lastly, religious schools. Most of them earn the lowest possible grades from me. Just another form of particularly twisted elitism; one that teaches Protestants/Catholics in some parts of the world and Sunnis/Shi-ites elsewhere that only their way is right and that everyone else is probably going to hell. The particular hell they’re pushing. (With apologies to the tiny percent of religions/schools that teach that all roads to God are good ones, along with ethical and spiritual paths that don’t include God.)

There! I’ve linked the religious schools with the religions that spawned them. If they’re dogmatic, repressive, unyielding, and prejudiced, avoid them like the plagues they are. Get out, just like you should from a brutal job or relationship.

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Another humungous fixture in modern life, and one which challenges us every day, is technology; its never-ending presence and scope in our lives is simply WBB: way beyond boggling.

The user-friendly computer that arrived in the middle or even late in the lives of some of us created the challenges of a brand new ‘language’ and skill set. We see, of course, no such challenges in today’s kids, for whom the computer, and its little buddy, the cell phone, are inseparable companions and foremost forms of communication.

Obviously, there’s no going back on technology; we adults have had to adapt to its ubiquity, some of you smoothly, some of us scratching and clawing every step of the way. Importantly on this front, I feel we must all use our wit and grit to help steer the juggernaut technology to actually be an overall benefit to humankind. No easy task; no way, no how.

Consider the challenges: about 1.7 gazillion websites, blogs, articles and apps; sites for news, sports, orgs and groups of every stripe and subject; sites that cater to obsessions, mild or intense, like porn and gambling, and the truly unsettling stuff, like the right-wing Christian (IMO largely MCOC) groups, QAnon, militias, white supremacists and neo-nazis.

And then, there’s the daily profusion of what I like to call GOP hate-rock: the unmusical rantings of the groups - and their current hits - including

QAnon and the Clusterfux, ‘Braindead Says it All’

Ted’s Cruz to Lunacy, ‘Stolen Vacays and Delusional Dribble’

My Pillow Mike and the Bedbugs, ‘Bleach Tickles My Brain’

Lindsay’s Graham Crackers, ‘Gnarly Depravity for 1000, Please’

Jim ‘Crow’ Jordan and the Rumplickas, ‘My Soulless Saga’

De Vos’s Truants, ‘I’m Smart as a Third Grader, Any Day’

Marjorie G and the Alien Menace, ‘Clueless in High Places’

Ingraham’s Ingrates, ‘Even My Farts Are Bigoted’

Greg Abbott and the Scumsuckers, ‘Hellbound Hustle’

Hannity’s Horror Show, ‘Dark Phlegm Eats at Me’

De Santis and the Shitferbrains, ‘Sleazin’ and Wheezin’

Mitch and the Miscreants, ‘Toxic Mold Soothes My Soul’

Alex Jones and the Tormented, ‘Psychotic Revelations’

Matt Gaetz Laid, ‘Trafficking in the Swamp’

MotherTucker and Fox Noose, ‘Satanic Upchucks’

Rump Droppings, ‘Oral Diarrhea Feeds My Base’

And we hear there’s a new joint venture by Ted Cruz and QAnon entitled

‘Cruzin’ with the Loonies’ or is it ‘Losin’ with the Croonies’?

And here’s a listing of the top hits from the ‘Misguided Christian Billboard’

Pat Robertson and the Dementors, with a remake of the Biblical classic

‘Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear’

Falwell’s Freakshow, ‘They Call me MISTER Purple Teletubby!’

Pat Buchanon’s Barfbag, ‘Slimin’ on Rte. 666’

Ken Ham and the Fossils, ‘Dinosaurs on the Ark’

Robin Bullock Turns a Prophet, ‘Even More Dangerous Than I Look’

Bryan Fischer’s Thumpers, ‘Straight White Christians Only, Please’

Jim Bakker and the Frauds, ‘Back in My Own Prison’

Slugs with Swaggart, ‘Swaggerin’ with The Devil’

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Inequality in American society, along with the bigotry that fuels it, is a constant source of misery for millions. And the rest of us feel its terrible toll on a daily basis, its tendrils strangling the cultural matrix that we surely wish could instead be overwhelmingly tolerant, compassionate, loving and forgiving. And equal!

Every single day we are bombarded with stories of brutality and hate foisted on people whose offense was driving or walking while black. A police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man, already subdued, with three comrades watching, till he’s dead? Jail all four with other killers. Another recently shot ten times, while asleep in his car? Ditto. A black woman and a white woman accused of the same crime; the white woman let off with a warning, the black woman sentenced to 18 months in jail. And on and on and on, ad nauseum.

Folks, we need to see dynamic reforms, as well as real consequences for these dangerous perps and clueless judges. Strict mental exams for would-be police, actionable punishment for guilty officers, in real trials, with dismissal, jail time and revocation of benefits and pensions. Exactly the same as justice should be for priest rapists and their laissez-faire bishops.

And the horrific rise in other hate crimes, against LGBTQ, Jews, Latinos, Asians, Muslims, etc, on the increase partly from the stress of the twin pandemics of Covid and toxic Rump syndrome. Folks, be a whistleblower, anonymous or otherwise; we have got to get these shitz off the streets. Bad cops gotta go. And prejudiced judges and the above-mentioned GOP haters and Rump-lickas? Of course they have a right to live their misguided lives. Our responsibility is to vote ‘em the hell out of the picture entirely. I know I feel better just thinking about a world without them in public view.

Onward and upward, full-spectrum allies!

It’s not that we want to be hateful or belligerent toward those who disagree with us. It’s that we want real justice to prevail, for everyone equally. Fair laws, with no rich white people buying their way out of crimes, out of taxes and into office, etc.

It’s also that we want to know who our kindred spirits are, in every walk of life; the ones who wish to live that full-spectrum life amid lots of others who feel the same.

And, of course, the ‘disagreers’ range from people who have every right to their opinions, but may be a little less ‘Christian’ that they pretend to be, to outright bigots, divisive and nasty, who, themselves range from people you know and can hopefully steer clear of, to those in the news, whose nastiness is a daily mindfuck: QAnon, skinheads, anti-vax misinformers, climate-change deniers, unchristian pastors and the ubiquitous GOP trash, from rump to cruz and the rest of the scumsuckers and bottomfeeders.

I know you all remember that God tells us often in the Bible that he hates all liars. But did you know that the three great liars of our time – Rush, Rump and Alex Jones – once got together at a Burger King? Yup.

Why there, you ask? Wait for it ……….. Cuz it’s the Home of the Whopper!

And here I thought I’d make it through the whole book without a single silly yuk. Oh well. These are friggin’ tough times, what with Covid and the orange rump rash duking it out to see which one infects us longer.

And let us not forget the international scene. You can vote here for which country you consider the scariest at the moment: China, North Korea, Russia, Iran or Saudi Arabia. And why don’t let’s throw in a warning about global warring and warming, shall we?

In times like these, to Yoda do I turn; “easy it is not.”

In truth, change always starts with each of us, though more and more, kindred spirits can be such a boon. Hey, about now, a whole full-spectrum army would work wonders!

Really, though, I feel like about seven words will best get us through all of this; and I don’t mean, “I just wish Rump was in jail!”

I refer to love, light, joy, gratitude, hope, compassion and forgiveness. And saying or thinking ‘Namaste’ with every person we meet.

Whether or not you actually pray or meditate or believe in any particular deity matters not; you can affirm to the Universe, as many times a day as you see fit, that one or more of these feelings is front and center in your being, and that you’d like to keep it that way. It signals to the Universe that you’d like all forces for good, all teachers and kindred spirits, to be important parts of your life. Now! And always.

And remember that little issues as well as huge ones, can come between people and their deepest wishes. As a for instance:

IMO, between any two people that have developed a warm relationship, a well-deserved hug is just sooo right, it overshadows even the best intentions of thousands-of-years-old cultural patterns that should no longer apply. Just saying.

I know, for instance, that many orthodox Jewish and most Muslim women are forbidden from shaking hands with or touching unrelated men, let alone hugging them. I get it. And I grok it and support it if they, the women themselves, live and truly resonate with such traditions. I wish never to forget that each of us is the author and title character of a unique soul journey of many lifetimes, as so eloquently described by Gary Z, Deepak and so many sages of the ages.

Still, this is 2022, and the world has shrunken to the size of a computer screen, so everyone has more, or, in some cases, less, access to how the world lives, even if their country or religion tries to stifle it.

We are all bombarded constantly by technology, by articles and videos from ‘experts’ and amateurs alike, asserting their observations, opinions, ‘truths’, and way too often, purposeful lies and misinformation. They cycle through our internal databases, which are filled with our histories, our upbringings, our preferences, our familial, cultural, religious imprints. Sometimes, they influence or re-direct our mindset, sometimes not.

Every day, we remain the same or make changes at countless crossroads, new or familiar, and with every experience, we make decisions based on our most updated feelings for our ‘beingness’ and our paths.

I just want to see a world where every person, every day, is free to reflect on their traditions to see if they all still resonate, and to be allowed to make changes if they don’t. And be able to hug if that’s what they feel like doing. And if hugs aren’t available to many who crave them, it’s always the right time to resist the authorities that ban them.

The material world continually tries to pull us into its mesmerizing trap, and the more we allow ourselves to be swept up into it, the more we are nestled into the illusion that it is the centerpiece of the real world. None of us is exempt from its pull, but we can, and IMO we should, be dismissive of advertising and marketing, because it always brings us a one-sided claim that we need their ‘superior’ product or ideology to get 'better’. Uhhh, not on my watch.

My first defense is the mute button for TV shows with ads. I’m eternally grateful for it, and I hit it immediately and don’t release it until the program comes back on. No rattled senses. Simple and effective! The next defense is a little harder, but just as important; namely, being on the computer. Ads are obviously everywhere, but attempting to ignore them completely is immensely satisfying. I hope you feel the same.

And all the other forces of negative energy still vie for our attention: politicians who pander to lobbyists - big Pharma/AMA, oil, NRA, vouchers for Christian schools illegally going after public $$$, Texas and Florida, shitz who refuse vaccines but oppose abortion, Alex Jones and all the Swamp Creatures, MMCOCs, billionaires who pay less taxes than the middle class, Scientology, never-ending rump droppings, tcwms, brutal dictatorships. It's a freakin' mess!

Unquestionably, if we read all the news on any given morning, we sure don’t get the kind of awareness we’re looking for; our senses are bombarded and our codes of moral integrity shattered. I believe that when we release ourselves from these illusions, by skimming right over the bad news, we stand a good chance of keeping our poise.

Our poise, our sense that there are kindred spirits out there, beautiful people, wonderful music, books and movies, are buoys in turbulent waters. Animals and nature's bounty are a constant parade of wonder. And Spirit beckons with the real truths of our being, within us and everywhere present.

Blessings for all

NAMASTE