Sorrow and Hope.

 

 Sorrow and Hope.

Summer is drawing to a close, and the deer are getting brave, closing in on my flowers. It happens every year at this time. Being a Canadian, I know that another cycle of death and resurrection is unavoidable. When I was living in Israel, I was waiting for winter and by choosing Canada I reversed the timing.

This world is perfect in a way by providing a balance between sadness and hope. The perfection is created by imperfection. Strange, but exactly what we need. I think about the heaven that people wait to go to after death, and I can’t imagine how it may be achieved. Our world is as good as a world could be if we didn’t make it into hell, at least some of the time.

Without making an effort, I observe my world and become depressed. When our brief summers come to a close, I always become melancholic. The flowers are looking like a prisoner facing a death sentence. I remember the big debate we had here years ago when Canada abolished the death penalty. Some people predicted chaos while others said that we have no way to be sure we don’t execute innocent people.

Well, the truth is that nothing on this earth will remain alive in its present form forever. We are born stamped with an expiry date and we wouldn’t be happy otherwise. Striving for eternal life is the quickest way to die. A person in a physical body can’t live outside of the world’s recycling program. My faith tells me that I will always exist and be aware of it, so I believe it.

I assess the world situation right at this moment and here is what I see. Countries are hostile towards each other. There is a conflict between the US and China, and Canada is hurt by it. China is aggressive with Hong Kong and Canadians are suffering. Russia is aggressive with Ukraine, and Canadians are suffering. It seems as if there is no way to live in peace without taking sides. I remember the words of the last president Bush when he organized the Iraq invasion. “You are either with us or against us,” he said.

We are Canadians and don’t want to be with or against anyone. We live in a difficult climate and need to focus on life itself, not on who will profit from who. Why can’t people just leave us alone? They don’t. Some wish to make money on our resources and others on our expertise and labour. Many always want us to fight on their side, as we did and still do. 159 Canadians were killed in Afganistan and 18 billion dollars were spent. It was Saudis who attacked the twin towers, not Afghanis or Iraqis. Canada has been a major contributor to the UN peace corps and Canadians are still playing a big role in improving people’s lives around the world.

Now we are being drawn into an internal conflict raging next door. A sickness is killing people and our neighbours politicized it. We would have been fine but our people are being affected by the right and left politics causing discontent amongst us. There is no way to keep all the fake news from crossing the borders. The same is happening with our health care and education. We have a good system that works well for us cheaper than in the neighbouring country but their discontent is crossing the border. I personally face losing my life for a shortage of doctors and carelessness about not spreading the ongoing pandemic.

I can go on and on about the problems and blame others for the suffering and turmoil. It wouldn’t be fair since all humans have skeletons in their closets, including me. I wanted to use this article to paint a picture of heaven which will give us something to strive for. The storytellers have to build hope and not spread hate and desperation. We leave that job to the politicians and other so-called leaders. Here in Canada, we have extra responsibility. The world looks at us for a good example.

Humans are on earth for about fifty to a hundred years in physical form and can choose to make the best of it. The big question is how. Do we build the most beautiful structures and impressive gardens? Should we lead in human rights? Should we lead in study and science? What is our vision of heaven on earth? The bible talks about every man under his fig tree and beating swords into plowshares. Would that do it?

I prefer to envision heaven from the Christian point of view. Not from popular religion but the teachings of a Jewish rabbi from long ago which started our new world. If there is one commandment above all, he said, its love. Laugh if you wish.

I believe that human culture has a basic flaw which we never overcame and is hounding us to this day and perhaps will destroy our civilization. It is the illusion of self. Can you imagine what would happen if any of your body parts began to compete with the rest of the body? This is what happened to us. We built humanity around selfish imagined importance of individual parts and it is destroying us.

The heaven I strive for is built as a human society where the words “I” and “self” are shunned. It’s a world where taking more than you can eat or use is considered evil and shame. I believe that we are capable of producing all of what we need, caring kindly for all people, and being polite and helpful to all living things.

I look through the window at the yellowing grass. There are two does and three now grown fawns. They eat what they can and hide from people, but not from my wife and I. We are considered as family. By the end of September, they will eat all of my flowers and in the winter they will consume the small willows and lower branches. In the spring amongst the flowers new spotty fawns will play and resurrection will happen again if human selfishness will not stop it.

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

 

Competition. Is it good or bad?

 

Competition. Is it good or bad?

I was living in Calgary. Almost every Friday I was motivated by the “need” to purchase something or other and to choose which mall to go to. I would choose a mall that had a few stores that sold my coveted item. Competition motivated me. I wanted to compare and contrast.

Now I live in a little town. I try to shop locally, but I am deterred by the lack of competition. I know that I will pay more for my purchases if there is no competition, so I go to where there is competition, but with a heavy heart. I want to support my local merchants, but they often take advantage of being the only supplier of some things. A town without healthy competition is heading towards extinction.

All my life I supported competition as a great motivator of humanity, and I still do for many things. I look at nature and see how the animals and even the plants thrive on it. Lately, however, a new idea began nagging at my mind. We are the elite species in this world, endowed with a mind and conscience by far surpassing primitive animals and plants.

Took us millions of years to arrive at where we are now, mostly trusting the natural selection and we are thriving. The problem is that by being oriented to competition a select few do very well and the many who do not win must do the best they can with the leftovers. We accept it and shut up. If a mega-corporation wants to sell our oil for a huge profit, we are happy to have some jobs building the pipeline.

This results from an education system based on ranking and selection system. You learn in your formative years, perhaps in kindergarten, that if you are not built to excel in something your life will be mediocre or drab and your mother tells you to learn to live with it. You also learn that if your family is not one of the top families, your chances of success are greatly diminished. It is not a fair world and there is nothing you can do about it so give it up.

In nature, animals and plants have a way to deal with inequality. It is called strength by numbers. Smaller, weaker creatures can survive very well by using overwhelming numbers. Humans restrict the power of those who didn’t win in the competition. If people protest we out-law protests. Resentment builds up until violence erupts. President Kenedy famously said that silencing people by force is dangerous. That is how wars and revolutions start.

The masses are educated to accept ranking by competition. Our education system is built upon finding the high achievers, often those with better memory and making others mimic them. Deep analytical minds or those who prefer quality ahead of quantity are shoved aside. They face a mediocre life or suicide. We celebrate good students with awards and forget the majority who do not do well with the stress that education places upon them. Yet their labor will keep the economy going. The average people are not recognized for their united efforts.

The race for superior economic production is good for economic growth, but doesn’t factor the majority into the calculations. We produce a lot of garbage and destroy the planet in doing so. Size is more important than what you do with it is not a good argument.

If you use our most advanced science to observe the universe, you witness a curious phenomenon. Everything exists in balance with everything else. The water on our planet seeks the same level., making the planet suitable for sustaining life. Moons planets and stars move in orbit while held in place by gravity. Males and females compete with each other in their own unique ways but can’t ensure future survival without each other. I call it God’s law. A competition that must end in balance.

Like any other game, the game of life would be boring if there was no conflict to spice it up. People can regulate the game by using rules that most of the players can agree with. We need both competition and rules for the game, which will force some reasonable level of equality.

Competition motivates us to move forward so we can’t do away with it. Many have tried and failed. Communism is a good example that now is practically gone. Useless rules are the same. We must always amend them to make things work. Politicians should be the hardest working amongst us and held accountable for the outcome of their actions.

If the world is my aquarium, I don’t want the nicest fish always on top, the vicious in the middle, and millions of bottom feeders on the floor. I want an interesting changing display of fish of all kinds dancing all over the place. The fish inside can’t see the living-room since they only see a reflection of themselves.

I believe that God designed the world as an aquarium and designed us to use our superior minds to make sure that it will work well if we do what we are predestined to do. He knew that we may try, self destructs, and try again.

I look at the pyramids that now long gone civilizations left behind and try to figure out how we may do better. The only way is to learn from the past and apply the lessons.

We must use our primitive competitive nature and moderate it with modern knowledge. We must use our appetite to feed our bodies and control it not to overeat. Use competition to move forward and minds to stop before destroying our paradise.

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

Freedom.

 

Freedom.

I was born and raised in an era of a freedom fighting wave. It was the end of colonialism and there was never a news broadcast on the radio or in the newspapers that didn’t talk about some nation or people fighting for freedom. All of Africa was at war against the colonizing nations. The far east was struggling and nations were celebrating their independence anniversaries. They still do.

I was in Israel when the Jewish people were setting up a free state for themselves, and the Palestinians were fighting to keep theirs.  I went to the US and Martin Luther King was marching with people who demanded their rights. I arrived in Canada and shortly after we were repatriating our constitution.

 The fight for freedom was raging. Eighteen-year-olds were demanding to have a drink legally, and non-smokers wanted not to sit next to smokers in airplanes. We fought to let women take jobs they could do and get equal pay. It wasn’t easy. The whole fight for universal medicare was raging and Quebec was demanding to have French as their first language.

Freedom is a funny beast. I remember a popular phrase at the time saying, “your freedom ends at the tip of my nose.” As with all things, some agreed and others didn’t. There are no simple solutions. Society chose to make laws that restrict individual rights and punish those who break them. Safeguards were institutionalized to avoid the tyranny of the minorities by the majority.

We were facing a new era when people had enough laws and rules, figuring that they will benefit personally if there are fewer restrictions. Now the majority reached a comfortable level and demanded a rest from freedom fighting. A new world was born. As always in nature and reality, things go in cycles. The pendulum swings higher and higher until it reaches a limit.

There are always people on both sides of the freedom equation. I tire of going a hundred km/hr on a straight empty road and I speed up. Out of nowhere comes a police cruiser and I get a speeding ticket. I know I was safe, but this guy in shiny shoes infringes on my freedom “just to make money.” I am mad.

I heard an interview with a couple who are proud Bikers for Trump. The man said, “my freedom doesn’t end when you feel uncomfortable.” The woman was crying that if Trump doesn’t win again, the world will be destroyed and her five kids will have no future. They were both riding with automatic guns to their State capital to protest having to wear medical masks. I hate to make a mother cry for her kid’s future, but If they win their freedom, I will most likely die.

On Canada Day I saw protesters in front of our parliament buildings in Ottawa with the same message. The lockdown, they said, was killing our economy. Do they know that we can afford to keep all Canadians alive and housed even with the lockdown? There will be no money for large profit margins on investments, but enough for the essential needs. In hard times drastic measures are required. Some parents may have to stay home cook and look after the kids, but we will survive.

We fought for many years to keep Cannabis from people. Many people, often minorities, were jailed, and we spent much tax money on investigating and prosecuting offenders. People fought for the freedom to use Marijuana, and in 2018 we legalized it. I am looking around me and I can’t see an increase in crime or any of the predicted evils that those opposing the herb predicted.

Now I am witnessing a new dangerous trend developing in the name of freedom. A message appeared on my phone from a friend. It talks in detail about a microchip developed in secret by the government, and it’s meant to control people. A video is attached with a very professional person describing that it is the sign of the devil.

According to them, the “chip” will be injected into us with a vaccine against COVID 19 when one is developed. The evil implant will mark people with the sign of the beast, damning them to eternal torment after death. Here on earth it will cause great social upheaval and bring about a one-world government that will make all of us into slaves.

Normally I consider conspiracy theories humorous at best. I often marvel at the fact that there are so many unintelligent folks who believe the most unbelievable lies and often spend money and effort to avoid imaginary dangers. Freedom has many forms and if we take it away, we will toss the good with the bad.

However, this time a conspiracy theory is threatening my life and the lives of most of my closest family and friends. We are making noble efforts to avoid being infected by the ongoing pandemic. Governments are spending vast amounts of tax dollars to hasten the development of a vaccine, and people are staying awake nights at work to do it.

I abhor the possibility that all the great sacrifice and effort will be wasted. Some followers of fanatical sects can derail all the effort in the name of freedom and place the rest of us into unnecessary risk.

Should we treat them as we treat attempted murderers? Do we need to give up democracy and bring a more authoritarian system of government? I don’t know.

One thing that I know is that there will always be freedom fighters and they will always be viewed as terrorists by those who deny them freedom. Humans are meant to debate, educate, argue, and strive to reach consensus. That is how the species evolves, and only God knows why. Life is wonderful because it offers so many choices.

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