While doing my daily blogroll reading, I came across an entry in http://www.breaktheillusion.com/?p=1412 regarding death. It's okay, you can keep reading.
Read what my buddy Davey wrote, it is not Terminal, lol- go ahead........I'll wait.......
***
After reading this, and the responses that followed, one in particular grabbed me----
I’m a medical student and while on the floor today, we had a patient that has
been diagnosed with Stage III Osteosarcoma transferred to our hospital. When I
walked into the room to get a history and physical the first thing she said to
me was, “I’m dying.” Taken back and with confusion on how to respond I light
heartedly said, “well, aren’t we all?” We both laugh and then she asked me,
“Well are you okay with that? (long pause while I’m in deep contemplation)
Because I am.”
All day I’ve been thinking, if I was now diagnosed with a terminal illness,
knowing I was going to die soon, would I be okay with that. Sadly, I still
haven’t answered that question to myself.
I can relate to this feeling of being not quite sure how I really feel about death.
Like most people, I avoid applying the concept to myself. And I avoid dealing with it when it concerns anyone I love. Never quite mastered that one.
We seem to spend most of our lives avoiding the subject, especially when it applies to ourselves.
We all know that it is a “fact of life”, yet see it as an be-all and end-all. But as Davey Wavey said, we all die (in some way) everyday.
Hopefully, we remember to LIVE each day too!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
The Landscape of our Lives
Imagine you are the Earth, as a whole.
Now imagine you are a sattelite in space, looking down upon the Earth (you).
You can see all of the Mountain Ranges, and the deep blue of the Oceans.
The cuts and crevices left by time, nature, circumstance.
Life is like that. People are like that.
We all have our highest peaks of accomplishments, and the depths of our unknown souls.
The scars left from years of neglect, avoidance, and pure dumb luck.
We have have the wrinkles of time that has marched across our skin.
We spend too many years, and too much money on things like therapy, skin cream, and barely necessary prescription drugs, often to "fix" things we could have prevented.
We covet the trophys we have won, the positions we hold, the person we like to think we are.
We cling to delusions that do not serve us well.
We want to rationalize decisions by using "prettier" words. Chocolate covered shit, is still shit.
Life is like that. The Earth is like that.
If we only gave the Earth the attention and respect we give our own vanity, well, you can figure it out.
And by the way, this is calling out me also, as it is never "all about" any one. It is all about
Everyone.
Now imagine you are a sattelite in space, looking down upon the Earth (you).
You can see all of the Mountain Ranges, and the deep blue of the Oceans.
The cuts and crevices left by time, nature, circumstance.
Life is like that. People are like that.
We all have our highest peaks of accomplishments, and the depths of our unknown souls.
The scars left from years of neglect, avoidance, and pure dumb luck.
We have have the wrinkles of time that has marched across our skin.
We spend too many years, and too much money on things like therapy, skin cream, and barely necessary prescription drugs, often to "fix" things we could have prevented.
We covet the trophys we have won, the positions we hold, the person we like to think we are.
We cling to delusions that do not serve us well.
We want to rationalize decisions by using "prettier" words. Chocolate covered shit, is still shit.
Life is like that. The Earth is like that.
If we only gave the Earth the attention and respect we give our own vanity, well, you can figure it out.
And by the way, this is calling out me also, as it is never "all about" any one. It is all about
Everyone.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Inspiration from Left Field
I came across this (not sure where) and I think it really applies to our Country, our President, and each of us as individuals......
**
Creativity loves a problem, but it hates a lousy audience.
If everyone around you is sure the economy is tanking, that the end is near, that time is up and the company is headed for the tubes, it's almost impossible to find a creative solution.
Creativity changes the game, whatever game is being played. "We're going to run out of cash by the end of the year," is accurate unless you count creativity into the equation. Then the accurate statement is, "Under the current rules and assumptions, we're going to run out of cash..." Big difference.
Creativity demands exposure to market needs, and insulation from market fears. Give it some time to work, some support, some breathing room. That's when creativity has a chance to change the game.
**
I think a new kind of creativity will be required in areas like alternative fuels, healthcare reform, education reform, as well as numerous others. Instead of thinking outside the box, I think it is time to get rid of the box altogether. Radical? Maybe. Although there was a time when the world thought that it was radical, even impossible to think that the wall would (could) ever come down between East and West Germany.
Never underestimate the impossible.
**
Creativity loves a problem, but it hates a lousy audience.
If everyone around you is sure the economy is tanking, that the end is near, that time is up and the company is headed for the tubes, it's almost impossible to find a creative solution.
Creativity changes the game, whatever game is being played. "We're going to run out of cash by the end of the year," is accurate unless you count creativity into the equation. Then the accurate statement is, "Under the current rules and assumptions, we're going to run out of cash..." Big difference.
Creativity demands exposure to market needs, and insulation from market fears. Give it some time to work, some support, some breathing room. That's when creativity has a chance to change the game.
**
I think a new kind of creativity will be required in areas like alternative fuels, healthcare reform, education reform, as well as numerous others. Instead of thinking outside the box, I think it is time to get rid of the box altogether. Radical? Maybe. Although there was a time when the world thought that it was radical, even impossible to think that the wall would (could) ever come down between East and West Germany.
Never underestimate the impossible.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Hope within the Younger Generation
I have a very close friend that is very active in local politics. He is about 13 years younger than I, and therefore falls into the category I affectionately refer to as "younger men". Or better put,
the Younger Generation. I know that a big part of where we "end up" once we emerge from this economic/global crisis lies in the hands of this Younger Generation.
It is easy, and reckless to stereotype the youth of today (and tomorrow) based on the nightly news reports of local robberies, shootings, and drop out rates. It is easy to do, until you come across something like I did today hidden within a MySpace friend request from a 53 year old woman from Maui, on behalf of her 8 year old son, Axil.
Once you see her/their page, and read the story, and watch the videos, hopefully you too will see the Hope of the next generations yet to come.
Here is the link (be sure and add her as a friend!) and the words to one of the songs that Axil sings in one of the videos.
***
www.myspace.com/worldpeacebefore2021
Here are the lyrics to “World Peace Before Two Thousand and One”
Let the Sun shine down.
Down on you.
Right through the pouring rain.
We know it can be done!
World Peace Before Two Thousand Twenty One..
Earth’s racial and religious tensions escalate each day Violence and terrorism..
Everyone is prey.
Democracy gone mad versus no human rights at all.
We all must work for peace now or the human race will fall.
Diseases growing stronger while morality just won’t keep.
Pollute the skies, rape the Earth, the price is getting steep.
Oppression in the cities, while the rich enjoy their greed.
A drive by shooting takes a life, now see the child bleed.
People put your hands together.
This message now must be sent.
The cries of war, cries of pain, starvation and corruption All must come to an end.
So let the Sun shine down upon you right through the pouring rain.
We know it can be done.
World Peace Before Two Thousand Twenty One.
Political attention feeds the symptoms not the cure.
While citizens go homeless and the workers become the poor.
Countries in disagreement while the innocent shed their lives.
These natural disasters should be opening our eyes!
People put your hands together this message now must be sent.
The cries of war, cries of pain, starvation and corruption All must come to an end.
So let the Sun shine down upon you right through the pouring rain.
We know it can be done.
World Peace Before 2021.
Now, take a look around at what's right from what's wrong.
We’ve got to keep believing and we’ve got to be strong!
So... People put your hands together.
This message, now must be sent
The cries of war, cries of pain, starvation and corruption All must come to an end.
So let the Sun shine down upon you right thru the pourin’ rain.
We've got to get together.
It doesn’t matter who’s to blame.
Just hold on to the faith and cry out what you believe.
We know it can be done!
World Peace Before Two Thousand Twenty One.
***
Thank You Axil, for feeding the fires of Hope that will surely help make America her best.
Share this. Hope. Nurture the next generations.........
the Younger Generation. I know that a big part of where we "end up" once we emerge from this economic/global crisis lies in the hands of this Younger Generation.
It is easy, and reckless to stereotype the youth of today (and tomorrow) based on the nightly news reports of local robberies, shootings, and drop out rates. It is easy to do, until you come across something like I did today hidden within a MySpace friend request from a 53 year old woman from Maui, on behalf of her 8 year old son, Axil.
Once you see her/their page, and read the story, and watch the videos, hopefully you too will see the Hope of the next generations yet to come.
Here is the link (be sure and add her as a friend!) and the words to one of the songs that Axil sings in one of the videos.
***
www.myspace.com/worldpeacebefore2021
Here are the lyrics to “World Peace Before Two Thousand and One”
Let the Sun shine down.
Down on you.
Right through the pouring rain.
We know it can be done!
World Peace Before Two Thousand Twenty One..
Earth’s racial and religious tensions escalate each day Violence and terrorism..
Everyone is prey.
Democracy gone mad versus no human rights at all.
We all must work for peace now or the human race will fall.
Diseases growing stronger while morality just won’t keep.
Pollute the skies, rape the Earth, the price is getting steep.
Oppression in the cities, while the rich enjoy their greed.
A drive by shooting takes a life, now see the child bleed.
People put your hands together.
This message now must be sent.
The cries of war, cries of pain, starvation and corruption All must come to an end.
So let the Sun shine down upon you right through the pouring rain.
We know it can be done.
World Peace Before Two Thousand Twenty One.
Political attention feeds the symptoms not the cure.
While citizens go homeless and the workers become the poor.
Countries in disagreement while the innocent shed their lives.
These natural disasters should be opening our eyes!
People put your hands together this message now must be sent.
The cries of war, cries of pain, starvation and corruption All must come to an end.
So let the Sun shine down upon you right through the pouring rain.
We know it can be done.
World Peace Before 2021.
Now, take a look around at what's right from what's wrong.
We’ve got to keep believing and we’ve got to be strong!
So... People put your hands together.
This message, now must be sent
The cries of war, cries of pain, starvation and corruption All must come to an end.
So let the Sun shine down upon you right thru the pourin’ rain.
We've got to get together.
It doesn’t matter who’s to blame.
Just hold on to the faith and cry out what you believe.
We know it can be done!
World Peace Before Two Thousand Twenty One.
***
Thank You Axil, for feeding the fires of Hope that will surely help make America her best.
Share this. Hope. Nurture the next generations.........
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Now that we know we CAN, We Must.........
After watching the President's address to Congress, I realized that our perspective needs to shift towards a re-learning of many things we have "always known".
1) Energy
We need to re-learn the How's and Why's of our consumtion, creation, and waste, if we are to leave a world that is livable for future generations.
2) Health Care
We need to re-learn how every individual's health and well-being affects us all on both an individual, as well as global level. From birth to death.
3) Education
We need to re-learn the importance of creating opportunities to compete on a global level in all areas of knowledge. And hold those responsible for educating in a much higher regard. We must encourage future generations of Americans to step up to the challeges that make them, and in return the rest of us, the best that we can be.
There are many other areas that need the same application of thought if we are to become, once again the country that we all know we are.
We must acknowledge, and address our short-comings in our caring for those that have served in our Military and come back to a home that doesn't give as much as it has recieved from their sacrifices.
We all know by now how "bad" it is. We all know by know how "great" we can be.
Now that we know we can, we must.
1) Energy
We need to re-learn the How's and Why's of our consumtion, creation, and waste, if we are to leave a world that is livable for future generations.
2) Health Care
We need to re-learn how every individual's health and well-being affects us all on both an individual, as well as global level. From birth to death.
3) Education
We need to re-learn the importance of creating opportunities to compete on a global level in all areas of knowledge. And hold those responsible for educating in a much higher regard. We must encourage future generations of Americans to step up to the challeges that make them, and in return the rest of us, the best that we can be.
There are many other areas that need the same application of thought if we are to become, once again the country that we all know we are.
We must acknowledge, and address our short-comings in our caring for those that have served in our Military and come back to a home that doesn't give as much as it has recieved from their sacrifices.
We all know by now how "bad" it is. We all know by know how "great" we can be.
Now that we know we can, we must.
In my Wanderings........
These are assorted items, quotes, etc that I have come across, and have stuck with me.......
Not sure what that means, but.......
He is the sum of his parts:
Expensive cologne and cheap cigarettes
Wrinkled oxfords and razor burn
Mangled thoughts and perfect speech
A walking conundrum that has everyone convinced
He’s got it together
When in fact he’s falling apart
And there’s no king that would bother to put him back together again
But like a good boy he perseveres
Not with any goal in mind but rather like some drone
Cruising through life on auto-pilot
Too afraid to take the wheel, for fear of being blamed when the car crashes
As it inevitably will
And for some strange reason you wish you were him
You wish you didn’t have to care
Even though everyday he rolls out of bed screaming silently
His eyes burn with tears he won’t let fall
But still he drags out his pathetic existence in hopes that he might feel.
Something
***
The Bliss Of With
You have come to me out of antiquities
We have loved one another for generations
We have loved one another for centuries
You teach me to trust the voice of my voices
You teach me to believe my own believings
You touch the palpability of my possibilities
Together we reflect what our mirrors conceal
Together we upgrade the sun in our meridians
We remain open night and day to transcendence
You are incompletely disguised as a mortal
You are the eternal stranger I have always known
I saw your wings this morning I saw your wings this morning
James Broughton
***
Not sure what that means, but.......
He is the sum of his parts:
Expensive cologne and cheap cigarettes
Wrinkled oxfords and razor burn
Mangled thoughts and perfect speech
A walking conundrum that has everyone convinced
He’s got it together
When in fact he’s falling apart
And there’s no king that would bother to put him back together again
But like a good boy he perseveres
Not with any goal in mind but rather like some drone
Cruising through life on auto-pilot
Too afraid to take the wheel, for fear of being blamed when the car crashes
As it inevitably will
And for some strange reason you wish you were him
You wish you didn’t have to care
Even though everyday he rolls out of bed screaming silently
His eyes burn with tears he won’t let fall
But still he drags out his pathetic existence in hopes that he might feel.
Something
***
The Bliss Of With
You have come to me out of antiquities
We have loved one another for generations
We have loved one another for centuries
You teach me to trust the voice of my voices
You teach me to believe my own believings
You touch the palpability of my possibilities
Together we reflect what our mirrors conceal
Together we upgrade the sun in our meridians
We remain open night and day to transcendence
You are incompletely disguised as a mortal
You are the eternal stranger I have always known
I saw your wings this morning I saw your wings this morning
James Broughton
***
Monday, February 23, 2009
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
-- Albert Einstein
When I was a kid, my mother owned and operated her own beauty salon, about 35 miles outside of Chicago, mostly for aged women with too much gossip to keep to themselves. Occassionally I would get dropped off at the salon, and have to wait a few hours for her to finish working. I would usually spend this time thumbing through the assorted magazines she had in her salon. Good Housekeeping, Redbook, People, etc. One day I picked up a magazine called AfterDark. An entertainment magazine mostly filled with reviews of broadway shows, nightclub acts, etc. In the back (Classified ads) there was an ad for the (Openly Gay) Marlin Beach Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. This was one of my first exposures to "Gay" anything. I was maybe 12 years old.
This was enough to get the wheels in my head spinning, wanting to know more about these other people like me. Like me except they were Out and talking about it, hell, ADVERTISING it!!!
Occasionally there would be a news item on regarding something gay, and I would cringe in my seat if Mom were watching the TV at the same time. Watching Dynasty with here was hard enough.
By the time I was 13, I was much better versed in what I thought were "All things Gay". I was starting to get the hang of it, or so I thought.
One night while watching the news, November 27,1978 to be exact, the news covered a story about a very vocal, very OUT there, very tender man being killed for just that. At 13, I unknowly listened to the eulogy of a hero. My first Gay hero, Harvey Milk. Oh my God, they KILL Gay people........so much for telling mom I liked boys.
In the almost 30 years since, I have watched alot of other heroes die, or be killed, because they were not understood. Of course you do not have to be gay to be misunderstood, just ask anyone in Israel or Gaza, but I digress.
As we all search for that elusive "Peace", as we all watch those with power try to force a kind of peace upon us (silence), it saddens me to know that we very often forget that the path to peace IS through understanding, not power.
So we "fight" on.
Whether it be Prop 8 in California, Amendment 2 in Florida, or when trying to get healthcare for those most in need, but least in ability, we must always remember, that Understanding, not Power, will get us there.
-- Albert Einstein
When I was a kid, my mother owned and operated her own beauty salon, about 35 miles outside of Chicago, mostly for aged women with too much gossip to keep to themselves. Occassionally I would get dropped off at the salon, and have to wait a few hours for her to finish working. I would usually spend this time thumbing through the assorted magazines she had in her salon. Good Housekeeping, Redbook, People, etc. One day I picked up a magazine called AfterDark. An entertainment magazine mostly filled with reviews of broadway shows, nightclub acts, etc. In the back (Classified ads) there was an ad for the (Openly Gay) Marlin Beach Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. This was one of my first exposures to "Gay" anything. I was maybe 12 years old.
This was enough to get the wheels in my head spinning, wanting to know more about these other people like me. Like me except they were Out and talking about it, hell, ADVERTISING it!!!
Occasionally there would be a news item on regarding something gay, and I would cringe in my seat if Mom were watching the TV at the same time. Watching Dynasty with here was hard enough.
By the time I was 13, I was much better versed in what I thought were "All things Gay". I was starting to get the hang of it, or so I thought.
One night while watching the news, November 27,1978 to be exact, the news covered a story about a very vocal, very OUT there, very tender man being killed for just that. At 13, I unknowly listened to the eulogy of a hero. My first Gay hero, Harvey Milk. Oh my God, they KILL Gay people........so much for telling mom I liked boys.
In the almost 30 years since, I have watched alot of other heroes die, or be killed, because they were not understood. Of course you do not have to be gay to be misunderstood, just ask anyone in Israel or Gaza, but I digress.
As we all search for that elusive "Peace", as we all watch those with power try to force a kind of peace upon us (silence), it saddens me to know that we very often forget that the path to peace IS through understanding, not power.
So we "fight" on.
Whether it be Prop 8 in California, Amendment 2 in Florida, or when trying to get healthcare for those most in need, but least in ability, we must always remember, that Understanding, not Power, will get us there.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
