Today is Feb 20th, 2010. 7 years and thousands of tears later, we are 100 lifetimes ago from Feb 20th, 2003 when The Station nightclub in West Warwick RI burned down, injuring and killing many.... I ask this: Have we learned?
Have laws changed for the better? Fire codes updates? To be honest, I don't know if they have or haven't; and laws can really only do so much. Laws cannot stop fires, murder, or any other crime be it intentional or otherwise; but these things are not what I'm asking about if we have learned. There are many scenarios, many situations in life, and indeed many tragedies, but have we learned?
I do not mean to offend anyone or by any means minimize this tragedy, the victims of it be they survivors or not; nor do I mean any disrespect to the families, the memories, or the extended victims of this tragic event; but I must still ask: Have we learned yet? Have we learned about the greatest tragedy of all: The loss of our humanity. Have we learned yet?
Have we? Have you?
Do we remember?
Are we more kind?
Have we changed as individuals? As a society? In what way?
Do we live in the moment of Now, fully conscious, awake and aware that all is temporal?
There is nothing we may say or do to bring our loved ones back; and again, I do not mean to minimize or offend anyone or anything with my words; but we can honor the victims, their families, honor ourselves, and honor life itself by living in the present moment of Now. We can live in fear, in pain, in bitterness, in sorrow, or we can choose to live in joy, in happiness, and in love, in honor of these these things. I mourn the tragedy of the fire, the loss of human life; but I rejoice in life itself and the undying nature of it. I know that life itself and all within it go on; and so do we because we do not HAVE life, we ARE life.
While our loves ones are merely just beyond the veil of our perception of this realm, they are not lost to us unless we become lost in our loss and no longer live life, but merely exist. For that is the loss of our humanity, the tragedy of our soul, and the one true death.
7 years and thousands of tears, still I remember and I cry. Humanity reborn.
Author's Note: I was Jack Russell's Tour Manager on his solo tour right before the Great White reunion; so I knew the band and Dan the TM on the fateful tour. Part of me died that night, and it took me a few years after that night, but I eventually left the music business forever. A part of my soul, my heart, died that night. For a long time, I held blame and judgment on parties involved, but no more. Blame serves no one and harms All.
May you find peace within.
Ron
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Earth Day 2010 - A Day 40 years In The Making
The first step is to choose to live as part of nature instead of thinking ourselves above it and above any responsibility for our thoughts and actions; from there we will think and act accordingly, knowingly, and willingly. The World is all around us and within us; we’re as much a part of it as it is a part of us, inter-connected part and whole. Since the industrial revolution, we have shifted down a path that has increased ever-present destruction and chaos, even though we have had many “improvements” and “advances” in life, at what cost are these obtained? We are killing the Mother on which we all live our incarnated life; and we’ve let this go on for far too long. If humankind continues on this path of destruction, we’ll become more of a parasite to the Eath than we already are. Humankind used to live in harmony with nature and understand our part of the greater whole, but this has long been forgotten. While it’s not lost to us, as there are those people who do have concern for the welfare of All, who do act accordingly in nature and as part of it, many no longer do, or never have. The minority of people who share this insight on the welfare of the Earth and All; they must become the majority if we are to survive ourselves. We hold the keys to our own imprisonment or our own freedom. The keys to our own salvation or our own destruction.
The world as we know is one in great peril; but it needn’t be that way. We each have the power within ourselves to make a real difference to create and manifest change. We are on the precipice of our existence. The last 100 years have wrought much damage and ravaged the Earth. She, Gaia the Earth, Mother, she will survive without us; but we will not survive without the Earth, the place which we call home. Let this day, and every day, be a place from which we may grow, like a child in the womb. Let us give life to the Earth and each other; no death, not destruction. As Gandhi said, “you must be the change that you wish to see in the world. “ Be that change.
Earth Day 2010 is to remind us; but every day we can see all that is around us if we just open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes. Let your eyes, allow your soul to see, your heart to feel, your ears to hear; and may all of these things inspire you to change.
http://www.earthday.net/
Some things we can do...
Consumption
* Avoid buying newly manufactured things, instead buy second hand or make our own.
* Avoid large chain stores and supermarkets.
* Buy things from small and local businesses.
* Favour worker cooperatives over corporations.
* Wherever possible buy direct from producers.
* Support local currencies.
* Trade or give gifts in preference to using money.
Communities
* Smile at people and meet their eyes.
* Give open-minded/hearted time to those people around us.
* Organize rotating work parties and skill-sharing events.
* Organize parties and celebrations (eg. a dinner party where everyone brings a
homemade dish or a children's party where each parent organizes a game)
* Vision together the future of our communities and make it happen by a combination of
negotiations with local councils and direct action. (If you think that unused roadside
could make a good veg garden then get some friends together and just go ahead and
do it)
Food And Land
* Propagate and plant edible perennial plants wherever possible on any available land.
* Learn how to grow food and save seeds.
* Set up personal and community food growing.
* Stick to seasonal, local and organic foods.
* Eat meat in moderation.
* Have a go at making bread, preserving food, making cheese, brewing etc.
* Enjoy cooking and eating good food. Treat our food with reverence.
* Learn what wild plants grow in our areas and learn how to use them for food and
medicine.
* Protect and encourage biodiversity and wild areas (eg. a small wild patch at the bottom
of your garden could be a haven for birds and small animals).
* Make a pond.
Energy
* Use wood (biomass) for heating. Install wood burners. Take firewood from the waste
stream and plant local or personal firewood supplies. In a climate like Britain's, short
rotation coppice crops such as willow can be fully productive in 3 years and a 30 x 50m
area can heat an efficient family house.
* Heat water with wood and solar energy. (A solar water heater can easily be made from
scrap materials in a day or two.)
* Use renewable electricity. Switch mains connections to suppliers who only deal in
renewable energy.
* Set up and use local or personal energy production systems. Small scale hydroelectric
systems in particular offer simply maintained systems with high and reliable returns for
the amount of invested energy.
* Practice basic woodwork, metalwork etc to make and repair basic items and tools.
* Compost food and human waste to build soil fertility and reduce energy demands of
waste disposal.
Lifestyle
* Withdraw investment from houses. Move to a cheaper home or make our own (most
cheaply done without permission).
* Work less.
* This will free up time and energy to develop sustainable ways of living as well as
removing support from destructive systems.
* Do not take employment from organizations which are unsustainable or who's actions
are not benefiting the world.
* Maximise our autonomy from state and corporate control structures.
* Move from urban to rural areas and start working some land.
Consideration
* Consider what elements of our world and society are of greatest value to us (air, water,
food supplies, medicines...?)
* Consider what elements /service / products we could happily do without (war, this
year's fashion, more DVDs, a bigger car...?)
* Be aware that the more we have of the latter, the more we threaten the former.
* Whenever we spend money or play an active role in society, take time to consider the
consequences of our actions. (Buying a tank of fuel supports the violent occupation of
the middle east, buying cheap clothes supports sweatshops and child labor, buying
from transnational corporations funds the extraction of capital from poorer countries
and the erosion of human rights)
* Consider our modern world from the point of view of our ancesters.
* Count our blessings.
* Appreciate the beauty and fragility of life, human and otherwise.
* Make time to appreciate and congratulate ourselves - we are all amazing and powerful
beings.
* Smile, laugh, love and dream. Be present and don't worry.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Pay It Backwards: An Act Of Coffee Kindness - by Arthur Rosenfeld
We need more people like this in the World and more stories like this being told by the media.
Pay It Backwards: An Act Of Coffee Kindness
by Arthur Rosenfeld
Just before Christmas of 2007, almost exactly a year ago, I steered into a Starbucks drive-thru line for a cup of tea on my way to teach a morning tai chi lesson. There were a few cars in line, and I got in behind them. When my turn came I gave my order at the billboard menu and moved up as far as I could while waiting patiently for the cars in front of me to get through the cashier line. While the South Florida weather would probably would have felt tropical to much of the rest of the country, I was a bit chilled and was looking forward to my hot drink.
The fellow in the SUV behind me reached the menu. Dissatisfied with the alignment between his mouth and the microphone, he laid on his horn, leaned out his window, yelled an insult and exhorted me to move up. There was nowhere to go. I was in a line, and mere inches separated my car from the one in front of me. Indignant at rudeness, I felt my temper come up, and because I am a pure and enlightened being who entertains nothing but positive thoughts, I reached for the door handle with the intention popping out of the car, taking a few steps, reaching into his open window, and sending him to the dentist for a holiday visit.
I'll show you what happens to rude and impatient people, I thought. I'll teach you that a martial artist is waiting in every car around you with the express mission of settling the world down into just the fair, quiet, and patient place they think it should be. Running that tape in my head, my ire grew even further. Testosterone and adrenaline flooded my body and in a few seconds I had transformed from the peaceful, content, slightly thirsty writer/teacher to a raving lunatic. My heartbeat was up, my hands were clammy, my muscles were tense, and the whole world had constricted down to the tiny business of completing my hostile mission.
Then I glanced in the mirror. The face of the impatient driver behind me was florid and twisted with anger and hate. I refocused my eyes and noticed that my own face didn't look much different. Whatever plague had taken him had penetrated the steel and glass of my car to infect me too, robbing me of my much-vaunted equilibrium, my peace, my balance, my equanimity--precisely that thing that my beloved tai chi training, and the Chinese philosophy behind it prizes most highly.
I teach my students that it is best not to lose that balance--wuji in Chinese--through meditation, breathing, and tai chi training, but when you do, you can use any of three "doors" to get it back. Door number one is meeting force with force: I could go ahead and start a fight. Door number two is yielding: I could kowtow on the concrete, admit to being an idiot, and beg the other driver's forgiveness. The best option, however, is door number three. That door is different every time. The trick is to figure out what that is.
The car in front of me moved off and I pulled up to pay. "I'd like to buy the coffee for the guy behind me," I said.
The barista looked at me in surprise. "But he's a jerk!"
"Just having a bad day, " I said. "Happens to the best of us."
"A random act of kindness, eh?"
I shook my head, thinking how I could explain door number three to her before the guy rammed my bumper with his. "Not really. I'm not doing it for him; I'm doing it for me. I was mad right back at him, but now that I'm doing this I feel much better."
I had only a $10 bill in my wallet, and I handed it over. She checked her order screen. "He has ordered breakfast for five people. It's a lot more than ten dollars."
That gave me pause. I'd already regain my wuji. Did I really need to go through with more? I took out my credit card and handed it over.
She searched my face. "You're sure?"
"Do it," I said.
After I'd signed the charge slip, I drove away without a backward glance. I had found my door number three, was finished with the act, and indeed was already forgetting about it. I didn't want to meet the guy on the road, either to hear thanks or more yelling, so I took a circuitous root to my lesson, avoiding the main highway.
Six hours later, I returned home to find my answering machine full of messages from the Starbucks manager, and from a reporter for NBC news. They had me using my credit card information. Apparently the guy behind me had continued my act of giving and the person behind him had done the same, and on and on. No doubt encouraged by the store manager, the chain was intact well into the afternoon. NBC covered the story. You can see view it here:
The news spread around the world. Within 24 hours I had received calls and e-mails from as far away as Australia. The key point, of course, is that I had performed a random act of consciousness rather than a random act of kindness. I'd nearly lost my cool, had retrieved it, and done something good for myself and someone else in the process.
In a sense, you can think of this as self-centered, but in a good way. Keeping your cool, maintaining your wuji is just like putting your own oxygen mask on in a damaged airplane before helping those around you. If you pass out, you can't help anyone. If you lose your temper, you are of no good to the world. Cool, calm and collected you are ready and willing to participate in the world.
Violent crimes and burglaries are up this holiday season. The financial crisis is creating anxiety, depression, desperation and anger. Spread the word about wuji. Do your best to control your own feelings before acting rashly. Think twice before doing or saying something you'll regret. Random acts of consciousness are perhaps even more contagious than random acts of kindness. Raise your level of view, dig deep for perspective, and help make this a more peaceful holiday season for everyone.
Pay It Backwards: An Act Of Coffee Kindness
by Arthur Rosenfeld
Just before Christmas of 2007, almost exactly a year ago, I steered into a Starbucks drive-thru line for a cup of tea on my way to teach a morning tai chi lesson. There were a few cars in line, and I got in behind them. When my turn came I gave my order at the billboard menu and moved up as far as I could while waiting patiently for the cars in front of me to get through the cashier line. While the South Florida weather would probably would have felt tropical to much of the rest of the country, I was a bit chilled and was looking forward to my hot drink.
The fellow in the SUV behind me reached the menu. Dissatisfied with the alignment between his mouth and the microphone, he laid on his horn, leaned out his window, yelled an insult and exhorted me to move up. There was nowhere to go. I was in a line, and mere inches separated my car from the one in front of me. Indignant at rudeness, I felt my temper come up, and because I am a pure and enlightened being who entertains nothing but positive thoughts, I reached for the door handle with the intention popping out of the car, taking a few steps, reaching into his open window, and sending him to the dentist for a holiday visit.
I'll show you what happens to rude and impatient people, I thought. I'll teach you that a martial artist is waiting in every car around you with the express mission of settling the world down into just the fair, quiet, and patient place they think it should be. Running that tape in my head, my ire grew even further. Testosterone and adrenaline flooded my body and in a few seconds I had transformed from the peaceful, content, slightly thirsty writer/teacher to a raving lunatic. My heartbeat was up, my hands were clammy, my muscles were tense, and the whole world had constricted down to the tiny business of completing my hostile mission.
Then I glanced in the mirror. The face of the impatient driver behind me was florid and twisted with anger and hate. I refocused my eyes and noticed that my own face didn't look much different. Whatever plague had taken him had penetrated the steel and glass of my car to infect me too, robbing me of my much-vaunted equilibrium, my peace, my balance, my equanimity--precisely that thing that my beloved tai chi training, and the Chinese philosophy behind it prizes most highly.
I teach my students that it is best not to lose that balance--wuji in Chinese--through meditation, breathing, and tai chi training, but when you do, you can use any of three "doors" to get it back. Door number one is meeting force with force: I could go ahead and start a fight. Door number two is yielding: I could kowtow on the concrete, admit to being an idiot, and beg the other driver's forgiveness. The best option, however, is door number three. That door is different every time. The trick is to figure out what that is.
The car in front of me moved off and I pulled up to pay. "I'd like to buy the coffee for the guy behind me," I said.
The barista looked at me in surprise. "But he's a jerk!"
"Just having a bad day, " I said. "Happens to the best of us."
"A random act of kindness, eh?"
I shook my head, thinking how I could explain door number three to her before the guy rammed my bumper with his. "Not really. I'm not doing it for him; I'm doing it for me. I was mad right back at him, but now that I'm doing this I feel much better."
I had only a $10 bill in my wallet, and I handed it over. She checked her order screen. "He has ordered breakfast for five people. It's a lot more than ten dollars."
That gave me pause. I'd already regain my wuji. Did I really need to go through with more? I took out my credit card and handed it over.
She searched my face. "You're sure?"
"Do it," I said.
After I'd signed the charge slip, I drove away without a backward glance. I had found my door number three, was finished with the act, and indeed was already forgetting about it. I didn't want to meet the guy on the road, either to hear thanks or more yelling, so I took a circuitous root to my lesson, avoiding the main highway.
Six hours later, I returned home to find my answering machine full of messages from the Starbucks manager, and from a reporter for NBC news. They had me using my credit card information. Apparently the guy behind me had continued my act of giving and the person behind him had done the same, and on and on. No doubt encouraged by the store manager, the chain was intact well into the afternoon. NBC covered the story. You can see view it here:
The news spread around the world. Within 24 hours I had received calls and e-mails from as far away as Australia. The key point, of course, is that I had performed a random act of consciousness rather than a random act of kindness. I'd nearly lost my cool, had retrieved it, and done something good for myself and someone else in the process.
In a sense, you can think of this as self-centered, but in a good way. Keeping your cool, maintaining your wuji is just like putting your own oxygen mask on in a damaged airplane before helping those around you. If you pass out, you can't help anyone. If you lose your temper, you are of no good to the world. Cool, calm and collected you are ready and willing to participate in the world.
Violent crimes and burglaries are up this holiday season. The financial crisis is creating anxiety, depression, desperation and anger. Spread the word about wuji. Do your best to control your own feelings before acting rashly. Think twice before doing or saying something you'll regret. Random acts of consciousness are perhaps even more contagious than random acts of kindness. Raise your level of view, dig deep for perspective, and help make this a more peaceful holiday season for everyone.
Why I switched from Windows to Linux as my operating system of choice
For those of you who know me, I’m hybrid person, being very analytical and technical via the left-brain and very creative, intuitive via the right-brain; so this article probably won’t come as any surprise to you. This blog is about spirituality, connectedness to all, esoteric and metaphysical subjects; but for this article, some of those things still apply even though I’m writing about a technical subject for once: Why I switched from Windows to Linux as my operating system of choice on my home computers.
I’m sure you may (or may not) have heard or read about Linux and all of it’s good and bad points from someone you know or from an article somewhere; and while many of those points are valid in whole or in part; I’m not going to go into a technical breakdown and analysis of them here. I’ll lightly touch on them, bringing out the basics for anyone not aware of them, and I invite you to research Linux further and make up your own mind about it. Realize that not everything you read about any given subject is the absolute truth or even accurate for anyone but the writer, so take everything written or said, with a grain of salt. This includes what I say and write as well. Everything is opinion, and this is mine. So let’s get on with it already, shall we?
As the title of this article states: “Why I switched from Windows to Linux as my operating system of choice on my home computers”, so why did I switch?
Well, the sort description is simply this: I got tried of always having to maintain, troubleshoot and fix my Windows operating system on my computer. There is also nothing that I want or need to do on my computer that requires me to use Windows. I can create, print, edit and save all sorts of documents and images on my computer just fine in Linux. I can email, surf the web, and even play games, all just fine in safer and more secure environment over which I have both the ability and the capability of total control over my PC’s software and hardware. Those are the primary technical reasons for my switch over from Windows to Linux; but there are also some philosophical reasons as well.
Trusted Computing, Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Free Software
I strongly disagree with Trusted Computing, which is where PC manufactures instruct your PC’s hardware to operate in certain ways vs. how you want it to operate. Without getting overly technical, that’s the crux of it. Again, I suggest you research anything that strikes your interest in this article.
Another area of contention for me is DRM, or Digital Rights Management. If I legally purchased a CD or DVD of music or video, I should be able to use that on any computer I own as well as make one backup of it in case the original gets damaged or lost. I do not condone software and/or video piracy, but this is yet another reason why I choose Linux over Windows because while there are some commercial software programs for Linux, the vast majority of them are 100% free…just like Linux itself is free. For any program offered for Windows, there is a free alternative that is available in Linux. You may like a certain Windows program (or need it), and it may run just fine in WINE (a Linux-based program that lets you run some Windows programs in Linux)
Vendor-Lock-In
There also isn’t the vendor-lock-in like with Microsoft/Windows and Apple, Inc/Mac OS X. Take for example music which I previously mentioned… if you are using iTunes with an iPod, you’re locked into that system by Apple, Inc because you can’t just transfer your music to any mp3 player and your music catalog is locked-in to iTunes and Apple, Inc, be it with our without an iPod. This is merely but one small example of vendor-lock-in, and something I encourage everyone to avoid at all costs. There are other portable music players out there, some of which will even play other file types other than mp3, wma, etc. These file types, mp3, wma, avi, mpeg, and many others, are what is known as “proprietary” file types. This means that the creators of those file types can determine what, where, and how those file types are used. Maybe one day you won’t be able to play mp3s on a certain brand of portable music player because the creators of it want you to only use THEIR file type, thus making it so your music files will only play on THEIR portable music player. I prefer to use open file types, meaning, files that will work anywhere, on any system, any music player, computer, etc. When things are open and free like this, they offer not only a way to avoid vendor-lock-in, but extreme portability so you can use your files, be in documents, images, music, wherever and whenever you want to, how you want to, and when you want to. It’s your data, so should you control it and say how it’s used? The same is true for your music player or computer… you own it, so why shouldn’t you have the final say on things when it comes to using it? If you have vendor-lock-in and proprietary systems, it controls you instead of you controlling it. If you have free and open systems, then you are without those (and other) limitations as well.
While a regular PC running Windows will give you more options as far as what to which software and hardware you can use with it verses a Macintosh, (which is even more restive than a Windows-based PC because it uses very proprietary software and hardware), a Windows-based PC is nowhere near as free as a PC running an free and open system like Linux. If you want to use a Mac for doing high-end video, audio or graphics creation and editing, I recommend Macs for that; just as I recommend a Windows-based for heavy duty gaming because of Windows’ excellence in that area.
(Yes, Linux can do gaming in some ways better than Windows: but Windows-based PCs doing more gaming in general than Linux-based PCs do, but this isn’t because Linux *CAN’T* do gaming, but rather that Windows-based systems are what the vast majority of game manufacturers write games for.)
In Conclusion
It’s all a matter of choice; but the choices you make should always be informed ones. I encourage you to do the proper research and look at not just both sides of the coin, but the edge, the 3rd side of it as well. Look at all of the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the pluses and the minuses of using any particular system be it a car, TV or a computer operating system like Windows, Mac OS X or Linux; and then choose what best suites your needs.
Copyright © 2010 Ron Schreiner All Rights Reserved
Avatar
There have been many voices of many messengers who have all said this same message, albeit by using different wording; the message does not change even if the wording of it does. Humankind needs to not only hear this message, but abide by it as well.
The message is clear and simple. It is this:
We are One.
We are inter-connected to the whole, yet not the whole itself.
We are not separate from The Source and All That Is, but part of it.
Every thing every where, and every one, is connected. Everything we think, say and do affects all within the All That Is and The Source from which it came.
Until we not only acknowledge this and live by it, humankind will not evolve in ways that benefit not only humankind, but All That Is and The Source.
In the movie “Avatar”, there were human being scientists called “drivers” who controlled created bodies made in the likeness of the Na’vi people so that the scientists better understand and communicate with the Na’vi (the native people of the planet, Pandora). Sadly, this goal was not a humanitarian one, but instead was merely a tool of corporate greed as a way to fulfill their ultimate goal to relocate the Na’vi off of the land so the scientists (and military) could mine some precious materials, the bulk deposit of which was under a sacred tree of the Na’vi people.
The look of the Na’vi was a lot like the Native Americans of this land, and just as familiar was what was done to them in the name of a mineral. Here on Earth, we did it for gold. The parallels between this fictional story and American history was quite obvious; but what isn’t so obvious, is the fact that just as the Na’vi bodies (or “Avatars”) were used to infiltrate the native people of Pandora to communicate with them, this movie is also an “avatar” because the writer(s) of it are trying to communicate with us...the people of Earth, to infiltrate our consciousness via this movie/tool to help wake us up. Be it in the movie’s world or on this Earth; the message is the same, and it applies both places. The Na’vi knew and felt their connection to everything, everyone, and everywhere, but do we? Do you? It is not only knowledge and awareness of this simple message of Oneness and inter-connectivity that matters; but more importantly it is the conscious feeling and living of it that matters. If we know this only in our hearts and not in our hearts, then we are certainly lost to ourself.
We as a whole need to wake up and not only hear the message, but abide by it in how humankind lives life. We need to let go our the ego and the false illusion of individuality, know and feel our inter connectedness to The Source and All That Is. The human persona (which contains Ego,) is the filter through which we exist in and perceive this realm, including our incarnate existence. When we are consciously aware of these things, we can choose to lessen their influence in our life. It’s all choice.
Copyright © 2010 Ron Schreiner All Rights Reserved
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