People who forgot to die.  

I see people all around me milling around trying to survive, get a better deal or discover the hidden meaning of life. I met a very old person at the town Post Office and stopped for a chat. Often the older people are lonely even when they have extended family and friends. When they are old and have more needs than things to give they are lonely and feel left out. An older person doesn’t move fast enough for the mainstream and is not taken seriously.

This older man was a respectable member of our community and left his mark but now felt left out and unable to cope with the modern world. The things he did in his youth were forgotten and he could not cope with the latest technological changes which could have made his life easier. I don’t feel that I am alive he said; I feel like I am just existing. He looked at me through a cloudy gray eye and a tear rolled down on his weathered cheek making its way to his big nose where he wiped it with his sleeve, sniffled and set his face tough.

I lived in a different society at one time. We valued the old people for their vast knowledge and often asked them what should be done. There were only a few old people around who survived to very old age and their stored knowledge was considered important. It has changed. Now we view them as surplus in this throwaway society and keep them safe and out of the way.

There are some other kinds of old people around who remain in the mainstream. My teenage grandson calls them the “people who forgot to die.” They are not genius and don’t produce miracles. They just keep themselves viable by doing something that gives them a sense of purpose and they never quit fighting.

I feel like I need a shot of wisdom so I stop at my local barbershop. The proprietor is as old as my dad and he works every day. At seven in the morning, there is already a lineup, and it remains so until after lunch. The price for an excellent haircut is the same as forty years ago and each customer receives personal attention. It is not a business for old people since there are lots of youth and children waiting. This old man doesn’t advertise or take appointments. He simply works hard, does a good job and charges a fair price.

From the Barbershop, I head to a seamstress to shorten a pair of pants. She has her business in a cozy little mobile home and likes to talk about her past. I can’t stay long since there are people behind me carrying material and notions. It is nearing Grad time and young folks need new dresses.

I drive over to the dry cleaners to drop some drapes for cleaning and I am met by a person nearing Ninety. He is smiling and knows his business well. His is one of the oldest businesses in town. Later I pass by his home and see him mowing his lawn. Another example of people who are too busy to give up on life.

Why is it that some folks are merely existing and wishing for a swift end, while others are still in the mainstream doing what they always did? Is it a special diet or possibly the pure mountain air and water? There are many possible explanations so I pick one that is closer to my heart. People live or die depending upon what they believe.

The people I am looking at are useful to their neighbors, community or town. I watch others who lost their drive for life. Some times they lost their mate and gave up on life. I can sympathize. Others fell onto the conveyor belt of life and are carried on without resistance.

As our medical skills improve people can live longer. Some folks live much longer than what was average a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, expectations rarely changed and folks begin to plan death far too early. Society is expecting some steps to happen and dreams often become the reality. I have seen people who had no reason to quit being useful say, I will leave things for the younger generation, make themselves surplus, get sick and die. Others also got sick, changed some habits, got cured and found ways to be useful. They have no time to take steps which bring them towards death.

We dream about retirement years before it happens and set our lives up to be carefree. We get our pension, quit all commitments, travel, play golf, or something else and enjoy. All our lives we waited for weekends and holidays and now it’s a way of life. We downsize, do condo living, move to assisted living, submit to long care and die in a hospital bed. It's all pre-scheduled and falls into place automatically. The body follows our expectations and beliefs, or does it?

I think that the subconscious mind controls most of what we believe to be “reality” since the creative power of God is in it. It has laws and limits and its full of surprises, but it has great power. I think a human doesn’t have to give up on life unless they want to. If they do, for whatever reason, nature will create the circumstances. The earthly creature in the image of God is not an insignificant victim unless it agrees to be so and we do.

This article is not offering medical advice or religious direction, only entertainment designed to provoke deeper thinking. Happiness, I believe, is in our hands at any age.

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

Pain!

Pain!

Pain is my closest companion. It has been my constantly with me for all of my long life. I can’t imagine life without it, even if I try as hard as I can. People believe that after death there is another form of existence, in the kingdom of God, and there- will be no pain. I can’t imagine how I could exist without pain or the fear of pain. Would I be able to enjoy existence without pain? What will be there if there is no pain? Enjoyment is the product of contrast.

I had my first surgery when I was a one-year-old. I can’t remember it but later I had the same surgery again so I know what it is like. A lot of pain. As far as I can remember there was always a pain. Accidents, health issues, toothaches, and punishment. In my childhood teaching was done with the rod and I remember it clearly. The memory of being subjected to corporal punishment is more vivid in my mind than all else. I will spare you the gory details but try to imagine the worst and then double it.

Now I live with chronic pain, the results of a surgery that didn’t work out as expected (I took a chance) and can’t be corrected. I believe that I am addicted to my subscribed treatments and I fear life without it. I know others in that predicament and I wonder. Could the pain be around for nonphysical reasons? I have investigated a phenomenon called the placebo effect and it works both positively and negatively.

Sir Winston Churchill wrote in his book Young Winston about him and his classmates being caned for not behaving in school. It was one of the worst experiences that the old statesman could remember. In some countries even today the court can sentence people to lashes, whippings, and canings. It was not long ago that in Great Britain they had the “rule of thumb.” A husband could not legally punish his wife by beating her with a rod thicker than his thumb. Now we evolved and are horrified when we hear about torture.

During the cold war, we used to hear about the Communist countries using torture to punish or extract information. Many stories about Nazi Germany discussed scenes of torture and the West was portrayed as civilized since here we didn’t use torture. The theory was that you can make a human confess to anything by administrating pain, which is true. This changed in the US under President Bush’s administration and was endorsed by presidential candidate Trump saying that he will use a lot more than waterboarding. What we deemed to be civilized has taken a step back.

We are all aware of the culture of the Roman Empire thanks to our religious beliefs. People went beyond all limits in an orgy which included crucifixions and being entertained by watching innocent Christian families fed to hungry lions and cheering their pain. The pain of others became the joy of some. Sadism and masochism dominated a social order.

It is common knowledge that the internet profits tremendously from porn. A big portion of porn is depicting men physically abusing women and often inflicting pain. A fair amount of literature has been devoted to supposedly consensual erotic torturing of women. There is a very famous Talk Show Host on trial who apparently caused pain to women for his sexual pleasure.

Without pain, humans and other creatures don’t survive long. It is needed as a warning system but it's not welcomed since it reminds us about death. We are a society which makes futile efforts to avoid death yet never wins the fight. As far as I know, most people die in hospitals while professionals try to save their lives.

My experience and longtime interest indicate that pain often is connected to psychological reasons. I maintain that the physical follows the non-material and not the other way around. It is hard to explain but easy to investigate and prove. A human has unresolved issues in life and soon develops a sickness and pain. Let me demonstrate.

I was immobilized in a hospital bed next to a wonderful elderly lady who had a history of severe pain and numerous hospitalizations. She was crying so I gently inquired. I have a little house she told me and a little pension that keeps me. She makes native artwork out of beads. My kids and grandkids come to visit me often she said and I love them, but they stay long and mess all my things up and I can’t fix it. The only time it doesn’t happen is when I am sick or in the hospital. She had very real health issues but the reason for the illness could be traced to her environment.

I think that many of our illnesses and pains are a response to some situations which we can’t deal with. Our medical system is designed to deal with the symptoms not the causes of the symptoms.

Personally, I only know life with pain and find it hard to believe that some people live without it. I abhor those who inflict pain as punishment, as a way to force others to do things, or as a way to receive sexual gratification. In my reality, the worst people are those who subject many others to pain, sickness or painful poverty, for self-gain. Sickness and pain are often the consequence of other problems and I recommend early intervention by exercising a “love your neighbor as yourself” attitude throughout life. We had the cure which is love and caring for two thousand years but failed to use it. It’s a good time to reevaluate.

Please note: I welcome comments, arguments, and additional information privately and publicly.

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

Magic, the power of belief.

Magic, the power of belief.

I had a heart to heart talk with my grandson who just graduated from grade two. I was trying to impress him with the idea that we can become good at anything if we learn and practice. He said that he was tired of practicing and wanted to quit after achieving moderate minimal results. What are you good at Emmet, I asked? “Pretending” was his honest answer. I felt like screaming. How can this young generation be so wrong? Yet I can’t be so sure that they are wrong and I am right. I remember doing it myself. Some people “specialize” while others prefer to be generalists. Both are human.

My grandchildren do things very different from what I used to do. They spend a great amount of time in front of screens, computers, tablets cell phones and occasionally TVs. Often it looks to me as if they are abandoning reality in favor of playing games on a flat tiny screen and pretending that it is a reality. Just about all of what I thought was important is unimportant to them. Their favorite outing is going to a place where kids play Virtual Reality. They are fitted with goggles and earphones, their hands hold controls and they move alone in a carpeted cubicle seeing things that I can’t see.

I have been studying matters of belief my whole life. All of our past is drenched in wisdom based on belief. It is in religion, philosophy, psychology, and everything else. I get a feeling that physical reality is based on thoughts and conviction. My reality is often different from your reality depending on our thoughts. We learn thoughts from each other, from society or from an inner source. We believe what is to us the truth, and to our amazement discover that it is not the truth to someone else. It is possible that an eight-year-old is correct and an eighty-year-old is wrong.

Thoughts, which are tiny electrical messages, create a variety of realities in the same place and at the same time. It can be created in a positive or attractive way or the other way, negative and unpleasant. “Thought often creates that upon it is directed.” It was Job who said, “For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me” and he was right. You probably know from your own experience people who are led by a variety of fears and what they fear materializes in their lives. Dark magic I call it, but I have seen evidence that there is also white magic.

What happens in a person’s life often is the outcome of beliefs that sunk into the subconscious mind and in a mysterious way becomes part of his or her reality. Past generations noticed the fact and devised ways to use it. You may know people who try to change the future by reciting some words and repeating them many times. Some call it mantras or meditations. You definitely are aware of the power of marketing and advertising. Any lie can become truth if you hear it enough times said, Adolph Hitler.

We have evidence that humans believed in spirits, souls, mind, or simply subconscious for thousands of years. Nicola Tesla believed in spirituality but somehow saw a connection to high electrical frequency. Pretending is a children’s game. Adults do visualization and play with the intensity, frequency, emotional quality, and power of thoughts achieving results. I remember being a child and hearing stories about the use of Voodoo dolls.

There are also people who use physical means to influence supernatural forces. The western civilization discovered Yoga not very long ago, but it existed for thousands of years. Yoga is a name for “union” connecting participants to the divine. Dr. Alan Watkins became famous by teaching people how to use physiology to change feelings, thinking and ultimately behaviors. No-one knows how but there is a relationship between physical existence and spiritual forces.

The essence of life exists beyond the physical which can be detected by our built-in senses. It is felt by most people. Instruments can measure electrical impulses and physiological reactions but the thought is independent and exists forming emotions which influence our living environment that we call “reality.”

In my earlier life, we needed most of our energy to focus on survival and we had to learn, practice and sweat, to have food, shelter and all other means of survival. Now we are entering a new age. The work which produces sweat on our brows is diminishing and the pain associated with childbearing is becoming a choice. Some old covenants are noticeably changing and we are playing with powerful old forces that are new to humankind.

This is an age where people have to use mental abilities, use sense of justice and believe in powers superior to material existence or give the earth back. The Earth will remain but humans are optional.

Like a child, I try to pretend. I can still do it, but it’s hard to pretend with every aspect of the soul and the body that it controls. It can’t be done by force, only by creating a true belief. Do I create a reality with my beliefs? The latest discoveries in physics indicate that it could be. The tiniest particle of matter reacts to a human observer. The same basic building blocks of matter copy each other over great distances. 

I spent a lifetime learning and practicing what others have learned and practiced. Emmet wants to pretend and make up his own story so I am attempting to teach him what I know. You must pick something and become good at it. At the back of my mind, I hear a teacher from two thousand years ago saying that we must learn our faith from little children. Is it possible that I am wrong, and my grandson is right?

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