Born Sweet

Every once in awhile there is a clear sign that your life, no matter how difficult it is, pales in comparison to others. This film Born Sweet is about Vinh and the people in Cambodia exposed to arsenic in the drinking water. Wells dug by well meaning NGO's in the past, hit naturally occurring ancient arsenic laid down millennia ago. They have since put in new wells, and developed a campaign to educate people. Thanks to Cynthia Wade, her film brings awareness to this problem with Vinh's help by highlighting RDI's role. RDI Cambodia is instrumental in weaving water technology and education and could use some help.

The Art of the Steal

And you thought Karl Rove was trying to rewrite history with his book? This will show you the corruption that happens frequently when business controls the world...the court...and the law. A detailed film about the undoing of a very specific will by a liberal, free thinking art collector, Albert C. Barnes. When we in America do corruption, we do it BIG.

Right Now or Not

I know I often live for the future even if it is only an hour ahead of now. In may be brought about from being apart from my partner while he is doing his Masters. Perhaps, I think we are avoiding the pain of seeing what is right now at this very moment. I call it, the uneasiness of being me. When meditating I find it much easier to relax into acceptance. I am not going anywhere, becomes very real as soon as I fold my legs. But I am aware there are so many things I should be doing and am not that brings the unease right up front and center. I have heard in the past that whenever you hear the word should brought up…mindfulness is not present. But luckily for me with this should does not come with too much judgment, unless I find myself fixating on things and people I don’t like. I am slowly learning about myself. Today, I took the bull by the horns by doing good things for 3 others in my life… spontaneous, kind and not done to get attention, more to lessen the focus on me and my current mental state. It sure beats finding things wrong with others. Remembering that we plant the seeds of our rebirth in the minds of others. Right now and very present.

The Odds of Being Disabled

After my hospitalization and discharge, I came home happily to discover self-pity, fear and anger stored inside a body that could not speak or eat. On many occasions “Why Me?” would pop out of my self-conscious and very gradually, it morphed into “Why Not Me?” That was partially born out of the sudden visibility(to me) of other people worse off than I, but also just out of the shear odds of becoming disabled. All I did was pick the wrong Dr. at the right time. I guess you won't be asking me for stock picks. Now, I am going to put forth a grand statement that will make a lot of you get itchy. At one point or another you all will become disabled in the future. It is not a matter of odds…it is just a matter of time…for all you.

Sure, you’re running a great marathon this weekend, and you think you'll be running up until you die. And you probably will… if odds are your favor. In one form or another, you will suffer some kind of disability, maybe small like losing your teeth, hair falling out or just tender knees. But, it could be be worse, a lot worse. And it will happen to you. It is just a matter of time. Damn, if someone told me this at 18, or even 30…I would have laughed at them. Now, I am not the devil or hell bent on making others miserable... and this sure ain't your Tarot reading.

I won’t bore you all on statistical averages on when or what kind. If you are that curious, perhaps you should dig them up. You can bet your bottom dollar that all the insurance companies know it and bet against you. It is just the facts. But, more importantly is when are you‘ll gonna wake up? We are them and they were us... at one time. If I had known this earlier, I would have saved for this rainy day, now.

Well, for some good news(relief, finally, you say).... I will tell anyone, when asked, that this injury was a blessing. It has brought me a key to the door of wisdom, and to be happy for what you have now, while you have it. Now, I'll just have to get around to opening this door.

The Experiencing Self & Remembering Self

"We actually don't chose between experiences, but we chose between memories of experiences. ...We think of our future in terms of anticipated memories!"

"There is genuine question:

Why do we put so much weight on memory,

relative to the weight we put on experiences?"
—Daniel Kahneman

Perhaps this why meditation works so well, we are putting our memories on the back burner, and creating new experiences as they dissipate.... with which to draw on in the future...Was Once

Prisoner of Circumstance

I am helping a friend move, and just unloaded a bunch of stuff outside his car and was waiting for him to come out. A red faced Russian man, smoking a pink wrapped long slim cigar, comes over to me blowing out smoke to the side, “Can I speak to you for a minute?”

Without time for me to answer he launches into a tirade about being locked up overnight by some kind of altercation with his woman. I really did not have any choice, but to listen, standing by all my friend’s things on the ground. So, I just tried my best to just hear him out. .. .a prisoner of circumstance. He offered me a "cigar-rette", which I kindly declined, but noting he was somewhat civilized. His accent was to hard to get it all, at his rate of rant or maybe it was the after-effects of drinking and no sleep… and I am good with accents. I began to day-dream about how he is a good character study, fighting his remorse by trying to engage me to commiserate. Of course, I agreed and nodded my head at appropriate times feigning interest. Wanna hire me?

I think it came down, when she did something dumb(it is always someone else’s fault), and he being drunk, rasied his voice and hand …not to strike her(he says) just to set her straight. And the cops were called. With statements about his 5 million dollar company, and how he would never hit for fear it would jeopardize his business. Is he bragging or is that ego talking? But he was still pissed by the cops that took her side and threw him into the drunk tank. And how he could get Shapiro (you know, the lawyer, he says) to close down this station.*&#_(@)#! Which just so happened to be 10 doors down from my friend’s new place.

He was on a roll after being cooped up, and finally my friend walked up to rescue me and the Russian from Odessa offered to help. I guess out of feeling guilty from unloading on me. I was the first person he encountered after his release…lucky me!

Under Buddha’s Eightfold Path right intention falls under wisdom. Wisdom that comes from a commitment to have good will and avoid anger and aversion. I have found in my practice, it is a little bit hard to maintain right intention in the heat of the moment, and I came up with this while in meditation. Before you say something truthfully or you feel your temperature going up before you jump into an issue that may seem warranted…look carefully at how you see the future of this incident. That seems to be easier to do, because it takes you out of immediate. Are you causing it to drag on longer and get further away from your goal? Being right in every instance might cause you to back track, apologize, or just throw good will out the window.

What Harm Do I Cause If I Marry My Partner?

In the Perry v. Schwarzenegger,

a U.S. District Court case challenging

the constitutional validity of California's Proposition 8.

"But what really happened, which was a very eye-opening event, during the course of the trial, during one of the earlier proceedings. The judge in our case asked my opponent, "What harm to the institution of heterosexual marriage would occur if gays and lesbians were allowed to marry?"

This went back and forth and back and forth. The judge kept wanting an answer. "What damage would be done to the institution of marriage if we allowed this to happen?" And my opponent said, finally, he had to answer it truthfully. He paused and he said, "I don't know. I don't know." That to me sums up the other side.

They say the traditional definition of marriage, but nothing by allowing the two couples that were before the court or others like them to engage in a relationship with their partner where they can be treated as an equal member of society hurts your marriage or my marriage or David's marriage or any other heterosexual marriage. People are not going to say, "I don't want to get married anymore if those same sex people can get married. That's not going to happen." There is no evidence to support a basis for this prohibition." — lawyer, Ted Olson, PBS Bill Moyers