A world changed in 60 years.

 

A world changed in 60 years.

When I was small, being sick was a dangerous business. We lived in a town of about five thousand people and had one Romanian doctor who was over 65. I was nine years old when my mother showed signs of a heart attack and my dad sent me to get doctor Harris. I had never been out of the house in the middle of the night, but I ran like hell. There were no telephones in town and we had one old doctor with his leather case containing the magical tools of his trade. He was old, but fast. He had to wait for me a few times. There was no ambulance, paramedics, or lab. He gave my mom an injection of something and she lived many more years.

I was reminded of the story last week. This time, I was the patient.

For the last two and a half years, I followed all the medical advice to avoid getting COVID. I am highly compromised, as they say. We had mandates and restrictions, as public opinion at the time demanded, and people were able to cope much better than in most other countries. Canada was better financially able to help people deal with the pandemic. Nobody starved, and no one enriched themselves, aside from the drug companies. They used the money that we gave them for research and charged a hefty price for the vaccine that we paid to develop. There was also a situation with China and another with the US where we paid and were short-changed, but we prevailed.

Since we had a high rate of vaccination, Canadians did well controlling the sickness that killed so many people around the world. The US had two to three times more deaths per capita higher than us. This would not last. It soon became politicized and viewed as governments trying to take away people’s freedoms. Our premier backed down, saying that the pandemic is over and hospitals filled up again. The medical profession lost more professionals, and we paid more for overtime.

At the beginning of summer, I followed my doctor’s advice instead of my political leaders’ wisdom, wearing a mask, sterilizing, and all but felt social pressure to abandon the practice. People were pushing their hands into mine to shake hands while others insisted on hugging. All the friends and relatives wanted to go for dinners, coffee, and travel places. The feeling was, we were vaccinated, so why worry? It’s nothing but a little cold. People ignored the news that in the US alone, more people still die from COVID each week than those who died on 9/11.

It was the economy against medical caution. Those who have businesses that grow and thrive on recreation, against those who are at higher risk for being harmed by the virus. In a world that is used to instant gratification, people came to an end of tolerance for being careful. After all majority of deaths now were in the older, more vulnerable demographics. Against were airlines, cruise companies, shopping malls, and landing institutions, to name but a few. Last Saturday I tested positive for COVID.

When my mother had a mild heart attack that was fixed by an old doctor who ran at night to save her, it was a different world. We didn’t have the scientific know-how that we have today, but we had honesty and goodwill. Now we have big businesses paying for studies designed to prove that vaccines don’t work and that rules for public health are a sign of tyrannical government. Thousands of little YouTubers with TV cameras and some basic knowledge of computers are competing for advertising money, spewing baseless opinions, and being counted as experts without any qualifications, but we count their voices as “public opinions.”

Sixty years ago, a doctor with a bag of primitive instruments and basic medications could save lives by fighting to save people. Now the fight is for political influence, money, and power. The focus has changed. People want money and power to get more money and power. If they can get it by saving lives, they will or the opposite will do. Values and morality changed.

A tiny killer virus exposed our weakness. We could fight for saving lives and suffer some, or go party it up and pretend that there is no problem. People wait for flights while the pilots and crews are too sick to fly and blame the government, and that is what we did. We blocked commerce demanding no restrictions and now I and others are paying the price. I am in pain writing to you.

A wise man said, your freedom ends at the tip of my nose. Yes, your freedom and all freedom have a price. We worked hard to advance science and in the last few years, so many of us chose not to believe in science when it’s not convenient or profitable. We can consume media that is based on studies that are paid for, not done by the most qualified people we have. It’s a choice that we make.

I watch the world news Monday morning and I am scared. Is the side of “Love your neighbor as yourself” still in the game? Are nuclear missiles or doves flying in?

Work or not work.

 

Work or not to work.

When we look at what humans have done on earth, it’s astonishing. Buildings, transportation, great inventions, and billions of humans everywhere. Look at virgin lands as we have here out of town and compare. The human animal who can’t fly, or even jump very high, can’t run fast, or eat food without long preparation, lives in large hives called Cities. People can use energy from outside of themselves to do work. When they fight each other, the damage they do is incredible. They always fight one group against another, probably for domination over each other.

Other life forms only have one goal: to stay alive. Humans are driven by an invisible force to change the planet from its natural state to something they imagine to be better for themselves. An ape will just sit on a rock while a human will make a chair. An eagle will fly as high as he can while a human will develop a supersonic flying vehicle or fly out to space. To do that, human needs the cooperation of many humans. Most humans don’t wish to fly to space, build cities or explore the depth of the oceans, so how will they get together to do that?

Here is a big problem. Some humans need to lead, and many humans must follow and provide work. Hence, there is a reason for conflict and war. Who will lead and towards what goal? The most capable humans know many ways to achieve goals and do not do it without some personal gratification. They can convince others to reach their goals, or try to force them to work. Each way is costly, but in different ways. Others cheat to get their way and scare those around them with their explosive tempers.

Much of humankind is under threat of death, by starvation, disease, violence, or many other reasons. Often, the only way they know how to live is no longer viable. They may flock to the borders of rich countries and do what they can to get in. They will do any work to survive, but their skill level is not needed. A step above them are the low-skilled workers already in rich places. Those in the lead exploit them and make them live slightly above slave status. Humans let other humans live only if they are useful to themselves.

Most people I know need to work to be happy. It’s not the money that they earn, it’s the satisfaction of doing something useful. I have one eighty-year-old friend who builds decks for minimal pay. A lot of older ladies knit and crochet to give the product away to anyone who needs it. My little grandson builds amazingly intricate structures out of Legos just to build better ones next time. Humans need work. Unfortunately, we don’t try to have people do the work that they are meant to do, but work for money. We could have specialists matching the right folks to suitable jobs available to them, but we don’t.

Our governments try hard to force people to do work that will produce high yields for some employers by denying workers basic human needs if they don’t. That is not the right or most productive way. As work is disappearing when we automate all work opportunities, we end up with many surplus people. The world can feed all living humans if we set ourselves the right goals and work to achieve them. The goal must not be to enrich a few on the work of the many as it is now. It must not be to build the capacity to kill and subjugate others, either. Attempts to use people for personal gains will get exposed and will not succeed. People may be uneducated but are not stupid.

The only goal that humans can set and truly achieve is to use the gifts bestowed upon us for the benefit of all of us. There will be cheating, laziness, and attempts to terrorize others. There will be selfish individuals who will try to steal the pay for honest work for their own gratification. Also, some humans will be lucky to just survive without contributing to the overall effort. “The poor will always be with you.” They are the test that we must pass on the way to grow into God’s likeness. We were created to face and pass tests. He is the God of all, not only the rich and powerful.

Humans are designed to be partially dependent on each other, especially at the beginning and end of life. A human is incomplete without empathy, which works for and against each individual. Nature forces us to be a part of a hive, not a superhero in an imaginary game. It takes a village to raise a child, and from a child, a village grows.

Most work hard, more or less, while some are injured and a few are lazy without a good reason. Fewer yet spend time and effort thinking, figuring out, and communicating the results. That is what we are doing here.

We don’t need to hunt others and make them work for less, but we need value for hard work. All of our riches produced by our work should benefit our kind, the animals, and the world that gives us life. There is never enough for those so insecure they need to hoard while others suffer.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Provincial Elect

 

Provincial Elect

The sun is red, and the air is smoky. I remember many years ago fires that did that. Every few years, we would see a red sun like that. It would be the talk of the town as much as floods or earthquakes are. Now I have a hard time finding out where the fire is since there are so many of them. All I know is that insurance will go up for those of us who are lucky enough not to be where the fire is. We all pay for it. Since my pension is not increasing, soon I will have to go without insurance. To solve the problem, we need leaders who will work for a long time solution.

The party in power in my province is having an election for a new leader who will be the premier. I watch and read the promises that the leadership candidates make and I fall asleep. They are not speaking about my problems, but about beating Trudeau or Notley. They promise some good jobs for a duration. Just enough to elect them. Here jobs are mostly in the energy industry with a minor improvement in agriculture.

Sorry, I am not interested. The candidates are talking about saving taxes but not much at my level. If they take more of my pension, they will have to give me welfare or deal with a hungry angry me, which is not pretty. I gave all I had to build the province and I will fight if they try to make me homeless in my later years. They talk about “efficiencies” in Health Care and they are effectively destroying the system when we need it most. Again, I am not interested. Pay our home-grown professionals enough so they will not leave us high and dry. That is Capitalism. Let the Market dictate prices. Quebec has an $18 minimum wage and no oil.

I assess the last few years’ successes of the government. They are delighted by investors bringing industries like plastics factories. They will do it with minimum staff and use labour from China for the labour-intensive parts. No benefit for our unemployed, low-skilled people. The bragging about tabling a balanced budget leaves me smiling like an idiot. Where would we have been if Russia didn’t go to war using energy as a weapon, doubling the price of oil, I wonder? At the end of the “debate”, I have only one candidate I would consider making a premier. Rajan Sawhney (Canadian-born) is talking about leading the province based on Peter Lougheed’s principles.

At this point in my life, I no longer believe that ambitious young politicians with English-sounding names (i.e. Smith) will fight for what I care about. They will try to shove me into a shared room in a private care home and save money on my health care costs unless I and others like me will fight the best we can.

In days gone by, people were busy making a living using their muscles and wits, as they still do all over the world. They looked after the young, later after the old, while contributing to the social fabric. The church institutionalized the services and the government took it over. A spoiled society was the result, demanding that governments will provide services without spending money. We became soft and whiny.

This happened with every empire in history. The next step is revolution or a takeover by the less fortunate. If a war happens involving the third world, China, India, and possibly Russia, we will lose our dominating position. The time to act is now while we can.

There are lots of good jobs for all in serving each other, developing alternative energy sources, and advancing humankind to the next level in human evolution. Those who will not contribute will remain at the bottom and not be listened to. What’s needed are good, well-intentioned governments. The time to decide is at an election. We need leaders who build things, not sugarcoat the existing world order.

People must not be tempted to win ahead of others but led towards improving the country. Our goal is not to be better off than people in Quebec but to show Quebecers how to build a country that cares about all its citizens. We don’t wish to live the lives of the rich and famous, but to have a country where no one is homeless. We care about the sick, old, and young and work to improve health care and reduce crime.

Lately, all the talk about fighting with politicians is showing results. Politicians are attacked, their families are intimidated and they need protection. I am watching my country deteriorating. I wish to see an end to the talk about fighting. I will vote for someone who offers hope, not promising to win against the rest of the country or to “beat” the opposition.

I watch the red sunset in the west and the wind change direction. Fast the sky becomes blue, and the grass looks green again. The smell of smoke is gone as if it never was. Change is possible. We must dare to work with and not resist change. I know we can.

Queen over change.

 

Queen over change.

At some point of time around 1971, I stood with a group of people who all spoke with accents, to become a Canadian citizen. We swore allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs. I don’t take oaths lightly. I came from a country that fought the British for independence. Yet my parents came here because they assumed Canada was the most peaceful country in the world. It was the place that runaway slaves went to, and where the English and the French lived in peace and prospered together. With my hand on the Bible, I said the words. I strongly believe in the power of words.

Now the queen is dead, (a prayer for her soul,) and a new king is ruling over the commonwealth. We don’t know if it will change anything, but there is much room for improvement in the world. Here in the remote Crowsnest Pass, we have a memorial for soldiers who served in a Royal regiment and we love our Royal Mounted Police force that serves us well and with honor. We model our government after the British parliamentary system, which is not perfect but works better than most. I am judging by the results, not by hysterical emotions that are quick to change regularly.

In the early seventies, I used to listen on the radio to a program by Earl Nightingale. Some of my older readers may remember it. He believed, rightly, in my opinion, that “Thoughts become Things.” Human thoughts have the ability to use the creative power of God. Every one of us is the sum total of his thoughts. He is where he is because he is exactly where he truly wants to be, whether he will admit it or not. The book we swear on says, as you believe, so it shall be done unto you.

In the seventies, there was a substantial change happening. Science, medicine, and, above all, military advancements were taking place at an unprecedented speed. The human population was doubling itself every few years, and so were inventions that allowed it to happen. I got my first pocket calculator and before I mastered what it could do, home computers were becoming household items and it didn’t stop there. We were able to find a new vaccine for a raging pandemic in months instead of years. I am alive since a few well-coordinated machines connected to a “cloud” maintain my body.

The question we are facing is what initiated such a major change in human development. When Queen Elizabeth was born, most humans traveled on horses and now, she died, and most humans never touched a horse, never mind ridden one. When her highness was a child, we probably couldn’t find a human who said he or she doesn’t believe in God, and now it’s hard to find one who believes that a supernatural mind is directing human destiny unless there is a scientific test to prove it.

Perhaps new discoveries gave us new confidence in our power to change the world or the exact opposite. Possibly the theories that our thoughts create our reality caused the change to happen so fast. We become what we think about. You reap what you sow. It works both ways. You may receive what you wish, or what you are scared of. The universal mind doesn’t know the difference, only does what you think about and become emotional about. It reads emotions, assuming that they are what you want. If your thoughts are sour, you will get lemons, but you can replace lemons with lemon pie.

The best teacher ever gave the instructions in mind control in what we know as the sermon on the mount. “Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and shall be opened to you. For every one that asks it, receives it. And he that seeks it finds it. And to him, that knock it shall be opened.” Most people ruin it by wanting to know how it will be done. It is not our business. All we need is a purpose and faith.

When humans have a clear and well-defined goal, the universe bends towards achieving it, but other people’s goals may change it. If the goal includes others who truly need divine assistance, it helps. Any hesitation or disbelief also causes changes. It is the unseen world that the ancient ancestors knew about, but modern people completely forgot. What we fail to understand with current science we write off as luck.

The idea of what is God also changed in seventy-five years. No longer a church God is mechanically worshipped but a spirituality that permeates all life is being understood by some. A church is the beginning of new faith, but it goes farther than that. People expect God to be everywhere and to know a person’s heart.

The monarch who “ruled with God” always saying “we” is dead and a new king will preside over a new world. Now God is understood to work with humans who can use His power by controlling their own minds. The new king and head of a church may face a reality unknown to the Queen.