MY DREAM HOUSE

My dream house used to be like a Disney castle or the Ludwig Castle in Bavaria, Germany. Lots of towers, turrets, and winding staircases.  That was when I was young.  Too many stairs now (ha, ha).

My house list, that is, my list for building a house, has three parts:

Part I is the features I’d like in a house:  For example, I’d like a screened porch for plants and an extra bedroom for an office.  I’d like to use recycled or environmentally correct materials and green building techniques as much as possible (but I’ll skip the “green roof” with vegetation growing on the roof, and yes, there is such a thing).  Kitchen cabinets made of real wood are my ideal, not that cheap pressed wood stuff that off-gases toxic formaldehyde for as long as you have the cabinets.  No wood from the ever-dwindling Amazon rainforest.  No energy gobbling McMansion floor plan.  I’d want my house at least partly independent from the electric grid with solar energy, etc. etc.

Part II is “location, location, location:”  For example, I’d like a piece of land that borders parkland.  It would have to be near a food store that sells organic food.  Be in a county that manages growth and has good zoning laws (no rock crusher moving in next door, please).  Not near an airport with thundering jets taking off.  Not near a military base where they drop real bombs in training runs.  Not near a Superfund site with contaminated groundwater.  Not near a smelly pig farm or noisy dog kennel.  Not near a cell phone transmitter (these are often hidden in something else; for example, a high church steeple).  Not near a nuclear power plant that might meltdown, etc. etc.

Part III is a to-do list with reminders:  For example, visit the county offices and check their maps to make sure the property is not in a 100-year flood plain, and high enough so it won’t be flooded when the oceans rise from global warming.  Buy title insurance in case the land title reverts to the original inhabitants, the Native Americans.  Remove trees only after the birds have finished nesting and raising their young, and so on.

My house list is very long (and could grow into a book someday), so I’ve included only a few tidbits above.  Every time I start to imagine my dream house, I realize anew how much I already have, and how my current house is perfect for me in so many ways.  I have too many blessings to count.

I’m not in a hurry to build a house, that is, have a contractor build it.  I know it would be a lot of work and worry.  I hesitate mainly because houses aren’t built like pianos; rather, they’re just thrown together, unless you get a builder who is very professional and very careful.  I’m such a perfectionist I’d want everything just right.  And a house has to be built just right if you want the roof to stay on in a hurricane, if you want the house to stay put in an earthquake, and if you want leak-proof water pipes, etc. etc.

What’s on your house list?

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-2007-

GAMES CHILDREN PLAY

“Simon says do this.”

So says the small child selected by his teacher to be the leader.  All the other children in the game of “Simon Says” must follow his lead exactly.  The leader says, “Simon says do this,” while waving an arm, jumping, or whatever.  Each child must copy his movement.  But if the leader only says, “Do this,” then each participant must stand perfectly still.  The leader tries to give directions so fast that the other children are tricked into moving when they should be still.  If they move when they shouldn’t, they are “out” and lose the game.

What does this tricky game teach children?  It teaches them that success is accepting authority and following orders.  It teaches them to follow orders exactly; to be good little robots or good little soldiers.  It teaches them that leadership consists of shouting orders at others.  It does not teach children that true leadership is facilitating, serving, and persuading others to follow, not just giving orders.  It teaches them that it is OK for a leader to try to trick and mislead his followers.  It does not teach honesty in leadership.

When I was nine years old, we played a version of “Dodge Ball” in gym.  The object of the game was to hurl a large ball, about the size of a beach ball but heavier, at children standing in the center between two lines of children (the other team).  The children in the center would attempt to dodge the ball.  Anyone who failed to avoid getting hit by the ball would be “out.”

What does this rough game teach children?  It teaches that eliminating people is a sport; that people can be targets and you can hurl things at them.  It teaches children it is OK to attack people.  This game is not inconsistent with the thinking that it is OK to drop bombs on people, if that will serve your purpose.  Imperialistic wars stem from this kind of thinking. 

In the game of “Giant Steps,” all the children get in a line facing the child selected by the teacher to be the leader.  “You may take two giant steps.”  So says the child selected as the leader.  The leader tells each child in turn what sort of steps to take in order to advance toward him, “a giant step” (large step), “a baby step” (small step), or “umbrella step” (stepping while twirling about).  The first child to reach the leader wins.  All others lose.

What does this absurd game teach children?  It teaches them to advance their friends and to do little or nothing for anyone who is not a friend.  Discrimination, nepotism, cronyism, and systems of patronage are all related to this kind of thinking.  This game does not teach children to be fair and generous to all.  At an age when the friends you pick are likely to be those who share toys with you, this game reinforces the idea that you do favors in return for a contribution.  Lobbyists get what they want because of this kind of thinking. 

In these three games, it is typically the teacher or parent who organizes the game and selects the leaders, or in the case of “Dodge Ball,” the teacher who selects the team leaders who then pick their friends to be the first members of their teams.  What does this way of selecting leaders teach children?  They learn that in order to succeed you need to be the teacher’s favorite – you need to engage in “apple-polishing,” or you need to have friends in high places.  It leads the child to believe that it is OK for leaders to be appointed by those in authority, as bishops are appointed by the Pope, or as office managers are appointed by the CEO, without any input from those who will be subject to their rule.

In these games, there are few opportunities for children to actually “win” and gain a sense of accomplishment, except of course for those teacher favorites chosen to be leaders or team leaders.  Most children get the idea that they are “losers” from these games.  Also, children are taught competition rather than cooperation.  What are the consequences of all this?

I suppose a lot has changed since I was a child, and children are no longer taught games that promote trickery, savagery, bribery, and despotism.  I hope so, anyway.  Here’s an idea:  change the games children play and you will change the world.

That was my thought until I realized these old-fashioned games had given us valuable lessons:

##  “Simon Says” taught us that the world is full of trickery; that we needed to be wary, listen carefully, and watch our step.  Maybe we grew in wisdom.

 

##  “Dodge Ball” taught us that life is rough and unpredictable; that we needed to have courage.  Maybe we grew more resilient.

 

##  “Giant Steps” taught us that life isn’t fair and that friends may fail us; that we needed to care for ourselves and believe in ourselves.  Maybe we gained the ability to recognize real achievement when it came, and grew to understand why it is so necessary to treat others with compassion.

 

##  All three games taught us that oppression comes in many forms; that we needed to be suspicious of those in authority and continually search for true freedom.  Maybe we learned how to recognize wrongs and to persevere against all odds.

There are doubtless many versions of these games.  What was your experience?

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-2007-

A UNIVERSE OF WONDER

The sublime – something that pulls you out of your everyday routine existence, that wakes you up, if only for a moment.  You say, “ah-ha!”

A few weeks ago I was in my garden and saw something flying about.  I thought it was a hummingbird.  It flew like a hummingbird.  It darted from flower to flower.  It was sort of greenish-yellow color on its back and had fast moving wings like a hummingbird.  Then it came near me.  It perched on a flower.  I looked at it.  It had antennae.  I was thinking to myself, “Hummingbirds don’t have antennae.”  I noticed it had six legs.  I thought to myself, “Birds always have just two legs, right?”  Then I chided myself, “Of course.” 

It wasn’t that difficult to identify this creature online by searching for an “insect” that “looks like a hummingbird.”  It is a moth – a hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe).  Ah-ha!   Wonderful! 

A few days later, I saw an actual hummingbird; far more reluctant than the moth to come near me.  A flash of blue-green.  Sailing straight across the yard to come and dart at my zinnias.  Such an incredibly delicate creature!

Days later I saw a snowberry clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis), very much in appearance like the hummingbird clearwing moth, but smaller and with slightly different markings.  At first glance the snowberry looks like a bumblebee, but its flight path is more like a hummingbird’s than that of the lumbering bumblebee.

I really get a sense of wonder when I see marvels of nature like this.  I also wonder at the repetition of forms, patterns and themes in nature: 

## a moth that looks like a bird – hummingbird clearwing moth

## an insect that looks like a leaf – katydid

## a sea animal that looks like a horse – seahorse

## a butterfly that has stripes like a tiger – eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly

## a mammal that flies like a bird – bat

I’m sure you can think of other examples.  What does all this repetition tell me about the universe?  That it is a marvelous, ordered and harmonious whole – that the universe is One?  Or maybe it tells me that the Great Designer ran out of ideas, and had to start copying themes here and there, throughout the plant and animal kingdoms (heh, heh).  Or maybe the Great Designer didn’t run out of ideas, but rather put mysterious repetitions everywhere as a puzzle for me, so I could ponder the essential nature of the universe, the nature of time and form, and even my being-ness? 

Is the universe an endless stream of random coincidences or, as explained by scientist Ruth Levy Guyer on National Public Radio, is there rather an amazing synchronicity?  Have you ever started drafting a post on some obscure topic, only to discover that a Friend already had a post on the very same topic?  In a universe of synchronicity, you find sameness, similarities and repetitions proliferating in a synchronous symphony; sometimes in alignment with the thoughts in your mind.  Of course the human mind automatically creates synchrony, constantly drawing analogies and seeing patterns in events – if it didn’t, we would perceive only chaos.  But when is a coincidence more than mere coincidence?

It seems to me there is a bit of a problem with a synchronous universe where I am the observer at the center of my universe and yet, just a blip on the radar in your universe, if I appear at all; and you are the center of your universe with a different set of synchronous observations.  The conundrum of synchronicity is this – how can all people be observing non-randomness at the same time, if the universe is a unified whole? 

One explanation of synchronicity might be that there is a deep connection among individuals at soul-level, and a deep connectedness among all that exists, that is far more vast and significant than the individual emotions, likes and dislikes, and perceptions that play at the surface; a connectedness from which all similarities of experience are derived. 

And time might be something other than the linear constant we perceive; rather, folding in and out on itself like yarn in an ever-tangling mess, or swirling about like eddies and currents in a river.  With such a concept of time, there could be an infinite number of pasts and futures.  There would be room for synchronicity and even miracles.  There is a saying, “What goes around, comes around;” but could it be that there are echoes from both a past and a future in this current moment?

I went online looking for information on a well-known scientific experiment conducted by a team led by French physicist Alain Aspect in 1982; an experiment that might touch on the phenomenon of synchronicity.  They found that under certain circumstances, subatomic particles such as electrons are able to be in sync with each other regardless of the distance separating them.  Perhaps the electrons are connected by some underlying reality?  I only mention all this because metaphysics these days seems to be informed by quantum mechanics, the relationship of the observer to reality and all that.  I have a long way to go to sort it all out.  I came across this free university course by physics professor Stanley Sobottka, A Course in Consciousness, which I plan to investigate further, an interesting mix of quantum mechanics and spirituality.

I am intrigued by the thinking of physicist David Bohm, reacting to the 1982 experiment, as quoted in the NCR, where he likens the universe to a flowing stream:

“On this stream, one may see an ever-changing pattern of vortices, ripples, waves, splashes, etc., which have no independent existence as such.  Rather, they are abstracted from the flowing movement, arising and vanishing in the total process of the flow.  Such transitory subsistence as may be possessed by these abstracted forms implies only a relative independence or autonomy of behavior, rather than absolutely independent existence as ultimate substances.”

It doesn’t seem to me that synchronicity is a particularly new idea; after all, people have been looking for “signs and wonders” for a long time, hoping that the universe will rearrange itself around them to bring them divine blessings that coincide with their desires, or divine messages that neatly match their need for guidance.

On Thursday I saw a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) flitting about my garden, a rare event, as we almost never have monarchs here.  I noticed that my mood was very much the same as on another day, many years ago, when I watched hundreds of monarch butterflies flying across the Potomac River.  Both days, I had felt a rare sense of accomplishment and even joy.  I almost heard trumpets playing (ta, ta !!!).  It was sublime.  I could feel a blending of those two days in my mind, as if time had ceased to exist.  It was déjà vu.  Thursday I was so pleased, and I wonder if my mood didn’t set the stage for the universe to open a door and blow in a butterfly; a monarch butterfly – so special.  It’s a tantalizing thought.

But enough of this New Age stuff.   I have gone way off on a tangent here, my thoughts taking wings and zooming off, much like the flight of a hummingbird.  By the way, my metaphysical musings here are just that, and I reserve the right to have an entirely different point of view next week (grin).

Has there been anything happening in your universe lately that is something more than mere coincidence?

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-2007-