The world as seen through our own eyes reflects the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
After working all week manufacturing a log kit for our next project, my friend invited me to go fishing. We packed, hooked the boat trailer to the pickup truck and began driving to our destination, the Kenai River on the beautiful Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.
Two hours into the four hour trip we came to a complete standstill in traffic. We grumbled, moaned, waited and waited. We waited for 4 hours hearing bits and pieces about an accident that had closed the highway indefinitely. As it was late, we decided to roll out our sleeping bags and get some sleep until traffic started moving. Others found this a great opportunity to break out the booze and start the weekend rolling, resulting in little sleep on our part.The highway reopened at about 3am and we finally resumed our journey.
The fishing was fantastic, making up for our inconvenient night of interrupted travel and sleep. We caught enough sockeye salmon to fill both our freezers with, in my opinion, the best fish in the world.
After returning home, completely worn out, we learned about the accident. Turns out there were two separate accidents, in one of which a man and his wife on a motorcycle were killed, in the other two small children died. What utter devastation to these two families!
After feeling very small and petty for my grumblings during that long night, my thoughts turned to how our circumstances seem to dictate how we see and interact with the world. A person living in a nomadic, tribal culture and someone living in a high-rise in New York City will have a much different definition of "home". We seem to think that everyone is the same because our neighbors tend to live in the same culture and circumstances as we do.
Before we judge others, we should stop ourselves, realizing that we do not see the world from their eyes. We cannot understand others until we have lived their lives.
One way we can increase our understanding is to read and study literature from around the world. This gives us a small glimpse into the culture of those around us, helping us see the world from their eyes. As the proverb says, before you criticize someone ,first walk a mile in their shoes.
Just a thought from the chainsaw carpenter.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Body and Soul
Two years ago last month my father passed away. He was seventy years old in seeming good health when he was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. He lived six weeks almost to the day from his diagnosis. We got to spend a lot of time together before he passed and now I'm glad that we knew he was going. I just came to realize something today that I learned from this experience that I hadn't thought of before.
During the first three to four weeks after his diagnosis my Dad was very concerned with things that he felt that he hadn't gotten done, that in his mind had to be done before he was gone. He worked at setting his affairs in order, making sure that we would take care of my Mom after he was gone. He insisted that we take him shopping in order to buy a laptop computer, hook it up to the internet all so he could personally look up two ancestors that he was curious about. He ate all the things he loved, visited with friends and family, He seemed to be trying to sew up all the loose ends of his life.
The last two weeks were completely different. He lost control of most of his bodily functions and when that happened, he seemed to disengage himself from all earthly things. It was like he took on a spiritual existence as opposed to a physical one. He talked of seeing loved ones long since passed. Waiting for his late father to come and get him. It was as if he was done with his body and had become a spiritual being. This brings me to the point of my epiphany today.
It seems to me that we go through life living for the tangible, day to day experiences that we call mortality. This can be fulfilling and rewarding to a point but there seems to always be something missing. What we are missing is that we are spiritual beings living in a mortal, tangible body. The physical can only satisfy us to a point. Complete fulfillment can only come when the experience of life is brought to a spiritual level as well as a physical one.
Lasting happiness can never come from without. No matter how many new toys or cars or clothes one buys, they only provide temporary enjoyment. True happiness comes when the inner spirit is affected. This comes from doing your best in all your endeavors, overcoming challenges, truly loving others and being right with God. True joy has nothing to do with the tangible because these things are fleeting. When our soul is engaged then our happiness can be complete. To be truly happy, find a path that will engage you body and soul.
During the first three to four weeks after his diagnosis my Dad was very concerned with things that he felt that he hadn't gotten done, that in his mind had to be done before he was gone. He worked at setting his affairs in order, making sure that we would take care of my Mom after he was gone. He insisted that we take him shopping in order to buy a laptop computer, hook it up to the internet all so he could personally look up two ancestors that he was curious about. He ate all the things he loved, visited with friends and family, He seemed to be trying to sew up all the loose ends of his life.
The last two weeks were completely different. He lost control of most of his bodily functions and when that happened, he seemed to disengage himself from all earthly things. It was like he took on a spiritual existence as opposed to a physical one. He talked of seeing loved ones long since passed. Waiting for his late father to come and get him. It was as if he was done with his body and had become a spiritual being. This brings me to the point of my epiphany today.
It seems to me that we go through life living for the tangible, day to day experiences that we call mortality. This can be fulfilling and rewarding to a point but there seems to always be something missing. What we are missing is that we are spiritual beings living in a mortal, tangible body. The physical can only satisfy us to a point. Complete fulfillment can only come when the experience of life is brought to a spiritual level as well as a physical one.
Lasting happiness can never come from without. No matter how many new toys or cars or clothes one buys, they only provide temporary enjoyment. True happiness comes when the inner spirit is affected. This comes from doing your best in all your endeavors, overcoming challenges, truly loving others and being right with God. True joy has nothing to do with the tangible because these things are fleeting. When our soul is engaged then our happiness can be complete. To be truly happy, find a path that will engage you body and soul.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Skip the Pity Party
The past month or so I have been reading "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy. To be honest it wasn't my favorite read. In my mind it came near to being a broken story, with a just bit of redemption at the end. The message I took away from the book was a good one though. A person must live for God or good to live a fulfilling, vital life. The whole plot revolved around this concept.
Anna's whole existence revolved around pleasing herself, resulting in her destruction. Blatant examples of this harmful behavior surround us. Drug and alcohol abuse, pornography, and immoral activities are among them. When a person focuses on self-indulgence, their soul diminishes bit by bit until eventually it is gone. Most of us sway back and forth, sometimes living for the good, sometimes for ourselves
It is human nature to be self-centered, but it seems that there is also an underlying desire in us to do good. Tolstoy seemed to think that this desire for good came from a Christian or God-centered upbringing. I think it goes deeper than that. My religious beliefs teach that we are all born with a spark of Divinity in us, that we are God's children and therefore that desire for good is always there. Only when we, through wrong choice and action, smother that desire do we become unwholesome people.
Toward the end of the book, Levin, another central character in the story made a brilliant discovery. He found that although we make mistakes every day, if we just shrug those moments off and live for the good, life takes on a whole new meaning. Instead of punishing ourselves or others for failure, we recognize the fault, try to correct it and move on. We know that we will fail again and again,but it doesn't matter, as long as we have the hope that God will make us better.
Self-pity makes a pitiful person. When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, just chalk them up to experience, dust yourself off and move forward in the faith that God is at the wheel and will take us in the right direction. With God as our guide, we can manifest all the good that is within us and perhaps the world will become a little bit better because that goodness was added to it.
Anna's whole existence revolved around pleasing herself, resulting in her destruction. Blatant examples of this harmful behavior surround us. Drug and alcohol abuse, pornography, and immoral activities are among them. When a person focuses on self-indulgence, their soul diminishes bit by bit until eventually it is gone. Most of us sway back and forth, sometimes living for the good, sometimes for ourselves
It is human nature to be self-centered, but it seems that there is also an underlying desire in us to do good. Tolstoy seemed to think that this desire for good came from a Christian or God-centered upbringing. I think it goes deeper than that. My religious beliefs teach that we are all born with a spark of Divinity in us, that we are God's children and therefore that desire for good is always there. Only when we, through wrong choice and action, smother that desire do we become unwholesome people.
Toward the end of the book, Levin, another central character in the story made a brilliant discovery. He found that although we make mistakes every day, if we just shrug those moments off and live for the good, life takes on a whole new meaning. Instead of punishing ourselves or others for failure, we recognize the fault, try to correct it and move on. We know that we will fail again and again,but it doesn't matter, as long as we have the hope that God will make us better.
Self-pity makes a pitiful person. When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, just chalk them up to experience, dust yourself off and move forward in the faith that God is at the wheel and will take us in the right direction. With God as our guide, we can manifest all the good that is within us and perhaps the world will become a little bit better because that goodness was added to it.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy Independence Day
July 2, 1776 the United States of America was born. The signers with their pens had declared themselves sovereign, freeing themselves and their fellow Americans from the false notion of the divine right of kings. They declared to the world, as John Locke stated, that "as sons of Adam, all men are kings." If we are sovereign, meaning the right to rule over ourselves, then why is it that at every turn we are told that we must do this or that?
As members of a society we enter into a compact to live together under a specific form of governance. We give up some of our sovereignty to be a part of society. The question in my mind is, to what degree am I required to give up my sovereignty?
The tendency of any government is to expand its rule and power. For this expansion to occur the sovereignty of its subjects must be diminished. For example, a group of homeowners want to "improve" their neighborhood, so they set up an association, make some rules and if anyone wants to live in the neighborhood they must conform to these rules. They had to give up a portion of their sovereignty.
This is fine at the beginning, but over time problems arise in the neighborhood, new rules are made, the people become more and more regulated to the point that the association injects itself, painfully, into the lives of everyone. This happens at every level of government and occurs because the citizens won't govern themselves so they must be acted upon.
The real tragedy occurs when governments try to solve issues at a higher level of government than is needed. For example, inner city schools are doing poorly so in a knee-jerk reaction, national education laws are made and enforced that may help the inner city schools, but have no, or even an adverse effect in rural schools. Government officials call for a "mandate", meaning a new law(diminishing your sovereignty once again) to fix the problem.
This type of reaction has occurred throughout the history of our great nation. From the Sedition Acts, to the Patriot Act, to Obamacare, these reactions to adverse situations have resulted in losses of our sovereignty. We have become an issue based society instead of a law-based society. Through lack of self-governance, we have felt the need to regulate every issue. Logically, if this continues, our freedom will be lost. Only where there is rule of law and self control can the people be free.
Those who fought and died for us didn't do it so we could live in a nanny state. They fought so we could govern ourselves. They fought so that we as kings could be sovereign in our homes. America needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps, take responsibility for ourselves and go to work. The entitlement mentality must end or the future will be an Orwellian nightmare. We as a People are better than we have let ourselves become. Today is the day to take our responsibility and our sovereignty back.
As members of a society we enter into a compact to live together under a specific form of governance. We give up some of our sovereignty to be a part of society. The question in my mind is, to what degree am I required to give up my sovereignty?
The tendency of any government is to expand its rule and power. For this expansion to occur the sovereignty of its subjects must be diminished. For example, a group of homeowners want to "improve" their neighborhood, so they set up an association, make some rules and if anyone wants to live in the neighborhood they must conform to these rules. They had to give up a portion of their sovereignty.
This is fine at the beginning, but over time problems arise in the neighborhood, new rules are made, the people become more and more regulated to the point that the association injects itself, painfully, into the lives of everyone. This happens at every level of government and occurs because the citizens won't govern themselves so they must be acted upon.
The real tragedy occurs when governments try to solve issues at a higher level of government than is needed. For example, inner city schools are doing poorly so in a knee-jerk reaction, national education laws are made and enforced that may help the inner city schools, but have no, or even an adverse effect in rural schools. Government officials call for a "mandate", meaning a new law(diminishing your sovereignty once again) to fix the problem.
This type of reaction has occurred throughout the history of our great nation. From the Sedition Acts, to the Patriot Act, to Obamacare, these reactions to adverse situations have resulted in losses of our sovereignty. We have become an issue based society instead of a law-based society. Through lack of self-governance, we have felt the need to regulate every issue. Logically, if this continues, our freedom will be lost. Only where there is rule of law and self control can the people be free.
Those who fought and died for us didn't do it so we could live in a nanny state. They fought so we could govern ourselves. They fought so that we as kings could be sovereign in our homes. America needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps, take responsibility for ourselves and go to work. The entitlement mentality must end or the future will be an Orwellian nightmare. We as a People are better than we have let ourselves become. Today is the day to take our responsibility and our sovereignty back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)