PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW

Who are you?

People want to know. 

Some people define themselves by their age, their location, their gender.  “I am a woman of a certain age living in Timbuktu.”

Some people define themselves by what work they do.  “I am a J-O-B.”  Or “I am an O-C-C-U-P-A-T-I-O-N.” 

Some people define themselves by their illnesses and medical conditions.  “I am a pill-popping-person.”  “I am the one who is always visiting doctors.”  “I have this disease and that disease.  I am a disease.”

Some people define themselves by their family relationships or their friends and acquaintances.  “I am the one meeting with my friends, talking to my friends, my friends did this and that, and blah, blah, blah.”  Or “I am an appendage to this other person.” 

Some people define themselves by their possessions.  “I am my really neat car.”  “I am my house.”  “I am my new TV.”  “I possess XX number of children and pets and other assorted belongings and that is the sum total of my being.”

Some define themselves by their political views, their religion, or other “isms.”  “I am my opinion.”  Or “I am a fanatic.”

Some people define themselves by their pastimes and activities.  “I do this.  I do that.  I do, do, do, do.”  Or “I am my calendar.”

Some people define themselves by their physical characteristics.  “I am tall.”  “I am short.”  “I just got my hair done and it is me.”  Or “I am my bra size.”  And yes, there are some women who bring up the subject of their endowment – often.

While many seem to want to tell the world “I am sexy,” not many seem to define themselves as “kind.”  (Nevertheless, lots of people demonstrate kindness abundantly.)  Given the many Spaces with images of barely clothed female forms with exaggerated breasts and super-long legs – and it is women putting up this stuff – it seems clear there are many women who define themselves as “she who thinks about sex most of the time.”  Perhaps they are telling the world, “This glamorous image is who I am, a legend in my own mind.”

Some people define themselves with their clothing.  Clothes make a statement.  The woman dressed ultra-frilly or bizarrely “sexy” is saying, “I am not sure I am a woman.”

The woman wearing a miniskirt or short skirt and flashing her knees is maybe trying to re-live her youth when miniskirts were in (the 60’s), or maybe is a wannabe movie star.  Whenever she is sitting, everyone around her knows she is thinking, “I have to keep my knees together or else someone can peek up my skirt.”  How can anyone take her seriously knowing this?  Obviously she doesn’t take herself seriously.  “I am the woman who holds her legs together.”  A ridiculous fashion.  Sort of reminds me of the silly custom long ago of women trying to ride a horse while sitting in a sidesaddle (with both legs draped together demurely on one side of the horse).  Reminds me also of those silly hoop dresses women wore – imagine trying to sit in one of those and still be dignified.  Or imagine trying to sit with a bulky bustle in back.

It always seems to be the woman who doesn’t have much to reveal who wears a see-through blouse.  She is saying, “You didn’t think it possible, but yes, I am she who can wear a bra.”

The teen at the mall dressed like a hooker with spaghetti straps and belly button showing is saying, “I am powerful.”  She thinks she is.  After all, men are drooling.

You’ve seen those e-mail questionnaires that go around asking questions like:  “What is your favorite color?  What is your favorite TV show?  What are you wearing right now?”  You are supposed to answer all 20 questions and forward it to everyone you know so they can know who you are.  Supposedly.  Let’s see, uh, my favorite color is pink, or maybe red, or maybe purple.  I don’t watch programmed TV, so question 2 is out.  And I am wearing the sort of thing I always wear this time of day.  Now do you know me better?

Well, I certainly hope I am not my possessions, my relationships, my medical conditions, my clothing, or my favorite color.  Isn’t there something more to me?

Who am I?

Full-size image

Aristotle supposedly said, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  Well, I hope I am not what I do habitually.  “I am she who does a tick-check once a day.” (essential in this neck of the woods).

Buddha supposedly said, “We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts, we make the world.”  (More quotes.)  Interesting.

Maybe who I am is determined by how I react to adversity (there’s always plenty of that) . . . .  and by how I react to the little miracles that crop up in my life.

Maybe who I am is determined by my values and how well I express them in my day-to-day living.

Am I someone I’d like to meet?  An interesting question.

Do I know who I am?  Not really.  If you can read between the lines, if you are good at reading people, you might know me better than I know myself.

Here’s an interesting line from the November 30, 2007 Daily Word:  “I overflow with the joy of living from the sacredness of who I am and of recognizing the sacredness of all others.”  Wow.  Maybe I should add that to my Profile.

Who am I? 

If I knew, then I might have at least a chance of answering the question – why am I?  That’s a better question.

Slide show and music on my main page.

-2008-

X Keywords:  find yourself MSN Windows Live Spaces X

EDEN AND APOCALYPSE

The stories we tell ourselves make us what we are.

What about the story of Adam and Eve in the First Garden, the Garden of Eden in the Bible?  Some see this as myth; others as history. 

I see it as a story of our times. 

Here we are in the First Garden, our lovely Paradise, our Earth, and because we have misused the knowledge obtained from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” we have almost completely destroyed our Paradise.  Everyday the headlines scream, “ice melting here,” or “glaciers melting there,” and my country, the “most powerful,” is on the sidelines, powerless to do anything, rudderless, under the thumb of corporations.  Evidently, the corporations that run our government have not yet decided to address global warming.  They’re too busy ripping off the Earth.  Soon we will have lost our Paradise – just like Adam and Eve.

The stories we tell ourselves motivate us, or not.  The biblical story of Apocalypse or Revelation is a good example.  Some see this story as coded references to happenings in the first century, that is, as history.  But others see it as a prediction of future events.  Many who take this stance become fatalistic, feel there is nothing they can do to affect the outcome, and adopt a passive wait-and-see attitude. 

But I have to ask myself – could Revelation be instead the kind of prophesy that is a warning of events that might be, if people don’t act?  Just as Jonah’s prophesy to the people of Nineveh was a warning?  Fortunately for that city, the people listened to the warning and acted in time.  They didn’t just sit around passively, waiting to see what would happen next (Luke 11:31-33).

We people of Earth have before us a challenge to stop the violence, the destruction, the chaos of our Apocalypse, and to start building the Earth.  On Earth Day, April 22, we need to think how we will take up the challenge.

Well, I wrote that, but that’s really too optimistic.  Do I think mankind is doomed to failure?  I think it’s likely.  The evidence is all around us.  Someone sent me a little booklet published by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, just FYI.  I was flipping through it and found a chapter on the last days.  We’ll know the Last Days are upon us, it says, by the huge amount of warfare and by the huge numbers of hungry people:  “more than 100 million people have died as a result of wars since 1914 . . . . well over a billion people have to live on an income of a dollar or less a day.  The majority of these suffer from chronic hunger.”

I can pick up the phone and order some trinket that will arrive on my doorstep in a matter of days or even hours, maybe even manufactured on the other side of the globe.  But do these marvelous systems of transportation, banking, infrastructure, etc. deliver decent lives to the millions and billions who are exploited and suffering?  Hardly.

Just think how easy it was for a tiny group of obscenely wealthy men to redirect the energies and resources of an entire nation (and drain the Treasury) for their own selfish goals.  Think how quickly the nation turned to war, as if there were not any number of better ways to achieve our goals, unless of course, the goal is trashing another country.  War is the ultimate management failure.  How ironic that the very people who should have stood with Jesus, the Prince of Peace, followed after politicians with the word “Jesus” on their lips, followed like so many children dancing after the Pied Piper.

Just think that there are still those who think our country is “superior” because it has nuclear weapons, weapons-of-mass-destruction, aimed at cities across the globe.  Those people equate brutishness with superiority.  Those are the people who think that having enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire Planet ten times over is a good survival strategy.  The detonation of even one nuclear weapon in a city would be an indescribably evil act.  Aren’t we smart enough to manage our enemies without killing tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of innocents?

I do tend to believe that mankind will never succeed in building a better world, but to do nothing is to be complicit in the prevailing misery of our times.  I feel fatalistic, but I still try to make a point of being kind, when I think of it.  I still try to make a small donation to charity now and then.  I still try to reduce my carbon footprint.  I am grateful to those who volunteer, those who struggle for fairness, peace, justice, and environmental sanity; those who take jobs that are noble and contribute to the betterment of the whole.

When will peace come?

Full-size image

Are we about to be rescued by a man from first century Palestine who will rule as our King?  A man who will rule better than all the inadequate men who have ruled to date, better because this rescuer is more than just a man?  I do like the idea of being rescued from mankind, and here I am referring to their tendency to form hierarchies, a tendency that leads to gangs, militias, wars, power-crazed and rampaging governments, gouging corporations, devastated environments, starving people, and the like, as distinct from beneficial networking among equals.  I would like to be rescued from the possibility of nuclear winter, from our looming global warming summer, and from the continuing saga of one disaster after another after another.  It is interesting to contemplate the spirit of Jesus (love-compassion-inclusiveness-good stewardship-caring) pouring forth as a balm healing our weary, wayward, war-torn world.

The End of Times is when Good finally triumphs over Evil, when the Wheat is separated from the Weeds, when all become a unified One manifesting a Divine Christ-like essence, when humanity evolves to its Teilhardian Omega Point, or whatever.  Could it be that the end of times cannot arrive until we at least take a few collective steps in the direction of that goodness, oneness, divine-beingness, etc.?  If we don’t, we may be stuck in the constant turmoil which is our ongoing Apocalypse – forever.  Maybe the Kingdom will not be finally realized until our ways are His Way.

Some think the Kingdom can be established by destroying every evil person.  But since the boundary between good and evil runs through the middle of each and every soul, such a Kingdom would be largely uninhabited.  Oh, I forgot, except for those who are forgiven.  And who is God incapable of forgiving?  No one?  So the Kingdom includes everyone?  OK.  When does the Kingdom begin?  It is here within us, among us, and growing.  OK.  So if it includes everyone and is here and now, then how do we move beyond our apocalyptic times?    

Why not take a few collective steps towards caring, understanding, and thoughtfulness, recognizing the oneness of all people and all things; for example, we can recognize that if we dump toxic pollution into a river, that someone downstream drinking the water could be harmed, so we refrain from destroying the environment.  That’s genuine morality and caring for one’s neighbor.  That’s growing the Kingdom.

Here’s a neat formula for growing the Kingdom:  “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:14-15 NLT).  Words nearly two thousand years old, yet perfect for today.

Our vision of the future is important because it determines how we act in the present.  What’s your vision?

Slide show and music on my main page.

-2008-

X Keywords:  Apocalypse Garden of Eden MSN Windows Live Spaces X