Peace on Earth.

 

Peace on Earth.

It’s a week before Christmas and I am locked in at home spared the pains of shopping on credit cards and all the rest of holiday rituals. It gives me time to think about the Jewish baby that was born destined to spread a message of peace, love, and hope. The airwaves are ringing with songs about Santa, Rudolf, elves, and gifts. Amazon is predicting huge profits and folks dressed up like Eskimos are dreaming about a vaccine that will allow them to return to “normal” perhaps without jobs and homes but, what the heck. They can say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays.

I call my wife “my gift from God.” I don’t give platitudes, I truly mean it. Yet in the fifty years or so that we have spent together, we probably sparred or had arguments at least every two days. When I asked her once what she hopes heaven will be like, she said, I hope in heaven there will be peace. Why ask for peace instead of living in peace I asked? And a new argument erupted.

I agree with the idea that peace is the most precious thing on earth and possibly the hardest to get. I have two cats at home and we love those little animals dearly. They have everything a cat could dream of and there is enough food, space, and comfort toys for 10 cats, but they fight. The stronger male hunts the female and chases her away from the good places, including the litter box. I get after him and my wife gets defensive on his behalf, so we fight.

I look around the world knowing that we live in the most peaceful time in history. It has been seventy-plus years since the last big war and the weapon manufacturers are not happy about it. Almost all fights I am aware of start because someone can make more money on fighting than on peace.

We exist in relative peace, yet there are wars all around us where people really get killed, children starve and homes are wrecked. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Yemen, Miramar, most South American countries, most African countries, large cities in the United States, all have small or large wars going on.

My friends and I go on vacation to foreign places, see the tourist places and take a tour to the safe areas of poor countries assuming that they are backward and need better political systems. We never see the truth. We only see what is shown to us. When we meet the poor people who came here as immigrants we see them humble, trying to learn our ways and survive here the best they can.

To truly “know” what the other people are like, we must go deeper.

There are billions of people who do not have our wealth and all that comes from having it. The poor can’t go on vacations but they see what we enjoy on TVs, and even on the screens of little smartphones. They know that living day to day, not knowing if there will be food tomorrow, is unnecessary. They “know” that they work hard but can’t be sure about the next meal, that their kids don’t receive education and there is no help when they get sick and die. They think that we also “know” it and enjoy feeling superior to them. They hate the fact that we have clean water and they don’t since our corporations polluted it.

In my day, I met many of those who were not lucky enough to be born rich. Many, including me, were born into poverty, often in rich countries. I also met people who were well off and lost it all, sometimes in wars. The poor are not stupid, not lazy nor greedy, they only want to live. They want their kids and aging parents not to suffer and die. In an attempt to save their lives they imitate those who do well and often become greedy lying cheats and the war goes on. You can’t find genuine love amongst the very rich. They don’t know if it’s not faked for a price.

I had the “privilege” to be around those who do not need to worry about food for tomorrow or even a pension for old age. I smiled and showered platitudes like the rest of them and pretended to be somewhat better than the unwashed masses. I studied the Christmas story theoretically but didn’t learn a thing. Powerful folks always wish to maintain peace while the underprivileged are a threat to them. The weak learn how to join forces and beat those who oppress them. When they do, they don’t stop and everyone changes places. The cards are shuffled and a new game begins. So how can we obtain “Peace on Earth?” Half of my Christmas cards this year mention PEACE.

Instead of trying to figure out how to cheat to get ahead of others, we could see where we can help, especially those who can’t payback.

People learn by imitating, even animals do. When we do the right thing, we feel good and others copy. It starts like a pandemic, in one little place, and spreads. It is slow in the beginning, but huge later on. Remember the song “we are the world we are the children?”

This year we have the opportunity to spend some time thinking and evaluating what we learned, even from an awful experience. We start with thoughts, go-to words, and perform actions.

My wish for this quarantine Christmas is that in some little mountain towns, like Bethlehem, the message of the divine baby will take hold and spread, infecting maskers and anti maskers alike. Little acts of kindness go around this world just as fast as wars.

Humans will now go through the most significant change ever. We must make it positive or destroy ourselves. Accept the teachings of the one named Emmanuel.

Joy and Peace for the new year.

The star of 2020.

 

 The star of 2020.

 

The year 2020 will be remembered in history as a time that the world changed. We remember the year 1 as the year of the birth of our Lord. Those who lived in that year remembered it as the year of the big star, which later became known as the star of Beit Lechem.

Beit Lechem (House of bread) was a tiny hamlet within walking distance from Jerusalem, itself an insignificant capital city of a strange little nation that worshipped one invisible God. In it was a temple with priests offering ritual sacrifices, and artworks that strangely didn’t include any reference to the physical attributes of that God. All other religions at the time had statues of Gods. The one visible sign in the temple was a light that always burned, called the eternal flame. There were people in Babylon who maintained a fire in a Zoroastrian temple and before that an Egyptian religion where God was simply “light” Ra was its name. There is a pyramid for Ra.

The star which led the three Magi (wise men) from Persia to Judea is really a conjunction of two bright planets visible from earth, and it’s very rare. The last one happened in the year 1226 before the death of the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi. He changed the church, bringing it back to the Christian ideal of helping the poor and revering nature, instead of being money and power-oriented.

This year 2020, on December 21st, the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn will line up and one brilliant light will be visible for about an hour in the South-West sky above the horizon. We, mountain people, may have to find a vantage point to see the historic phenomenon. (Perhaps from the parking lot of The Interpretive Centre.)  Depending upon interpretation, it should be visible for about five days before or after the winter solstice. It is three days after the Jewish holiday Hanukkah and three days before the Christian Christmas.

2020 will be remembered for many things. It is the first time that a sitting president of the USA is trying to challenge the democratic system of the Union, risking turmoil or even civil war. Also, that president was impeached and continued serving.  It is a year in which oil price-wars demolished economies around the world with low prices. 2020 saw some of the worst bush and forest fires, especially in California and Australia. Social rebellion and demonstrations achieved new levels, with the Black Lives Matter being the largest ever. A none white woman was elected to be US Vice President.  Canada suffered large demonstrations of First Nations protesting the government and corporations deciding who leads the aboriginal nations and make deals on their behalf. The gap between rich corporations, small businesses, and wage earners continued to grow at an alarming rate. The crucial event was and is COVID-19 arriving in the west soon after the year started.

It was politicized almost from the get-go with the political Left wanting to follow scientific and medical advice to reduce transmission and the political Right denying its severity, wanting to keep the economy from being set back.

Some countries in the far east and south took appropriate measures and controlled the spread of the virus to some great degree. They are now at the end of the year, mostly back to normal. They also suffered a minimal number of cases and only a few deaths. The richer countries were more worried about their economies and experienced more severe outcomes. Others ignored the threat and suffered a lot.

The virus attacked randomly but killed more people from the older generation and spread faster where more people live or work close to each other. In short order, the infected populations exhausted their ability to look after the sick or even deal with dead people.

Here in Alberta, an early short-term shutdown took the edge off the spread for a while, but forces beyond our control worked against us. The internet was effectively used to spread conspiracy theories claiming that there is no real threat, and the virus is a hoax. Being a strong right-wing society, many people chose to not follow the warnings and enjoy life as if there is no problem at all. The threat to older people didn’t motivate many younger folks to be cautious, and large numbers infected each other very fast.

As December arrived, the government was left with two choices. Do nothing and be like the US or shut down. Shutting down for the Christmas period was the worst time for little businesses and all Alberta’s working people and the faith communities. Now people face personal economic devastation unless the government steps in with serious monetary aid. Not taking action when there was time was the most costly choice.

The government tried to blame the advice of the chief medical officer, a woman named Dr. Hinshaw, but recordings leaked of her giving advice that may not have been followed. A political disaster that can’t be hushed left us scared and at each other’s throats.

Humans will survive the year 2020, but what happened once could happen again or things can change and improve above what we can imagine. There is a star bringing a feeling of hope. We could blame China or a smart lady Doctor, or we could replace peoples’ losses and wages as Japan, Norway, Germany, France, England, and Italy do. (80% - 100%.) It is up to us.

What do I wish for O Lord? A world where no child, white, yellow, brown, red, or any colour will suffer. There is no child who through selfishness and greed caused our problems. Let them not suffer for our mistakes.

Overall, I see that 2020 has been good to teach us things we must learn. The star of Christmas may be a sign in the heavens that a change for the good is coming.

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

 

Aliens coming to Earth.

 Aliens coming to Earth.

A friend asked me a question. If the earth was visited by humanoid aliens who possess the technical ability to come here, what would they think about us, our politics, economy, and above all religions. My friend obviously believes that people advanced technologically would not believe in Gods. The educated intellectuals look down on religious people since there is no scientific proof of God.

I imagined a story of an alien describing us. He said: The Earth humans are physically a copy of us, but mentally deficient, perhaps not yet fully developed. They aren’t cognizant of their powers other than physical manipulation of material matter. I will elaborate later under “religion.”

Humans are extremely competitive. They all but exterminated the other large species on the planet, keeping only those that they can subdue and raise as food. It seems as if they are trying to do it with each other. Only in their case, they want the labour, not the flesh of each other. Many enjoy hurting others. They named the action “sadistic.”

Through military might and later regulated economy some rose above others, harnessed mass followings, and compete for complete domination of the planet. They have a serious problem understanding that they are all components of one big body or machine. In other words, they don’t see how interconnected they are. For an unknown reason, they are mostly motivated by selfish individualism, even when it hinders their chances of survival.

Humans have learned how to harness artificial power to do some work they need to be done. They are doing it in the most wasteful ways, completely unaware that in a short time they will run out of the resources they must have. They depend on future inventions, but have no plan that will see them safely survive on the only planet available to them. Their idea of time unrelated to speed, energy, and space is unique amongst beings similar to us.  

They made themselves dependent on exhaustible food supplies and waste more than what they use. It seems as if some human groups are wasting all they can while others are fighting for the scraps and are stressed to the point of extinction for lack of basic needs.

The people, as they call themselves in their most universal language, do not realize that the most abundant resources on Earth are finite and take time to regenerate. They show no concern over depleting the air, water, and soil of their planet. Their machines allowed them to overly exploit the most important elements that they require for physical life and they show no sign of concern.

Weapons production on Earth is an enormous industry. From primitive to nuclear, they produce enough to kill themselves many times over. All of their weapons are meant for wars amongst themselves, and none could provide defence from attack originating outside the Earth. I could conquer their world with the craft I am in if I wished.

Humans are divided by skin pigmentation and what they call religions, which reflect their views of a supreme being called God, Spirit, or messengers from such. Some small groups have other variations. The religions seem to be connected to economic aspects and mixed or used by the most powerful amongst them.

One God messenger or “Son of God” gave them directions of how to be more like we are, but they never developed the proper language to fully explain his teachings. Another “Prophet” managed to unite some major religions seven hundred years later. Each time the religions became attached to some groups or races and rejected by others leading to wars.

Their education is severely rudimentary and available most readily to higher classes or what they assume to be a more worthy race or tribe. There isn’t a central theory that unites all humans.  

They have a reasonably primitive way to pass knowledge to later generations called writing. As they were discovering their world, they found other humans who evolved on distant continents. They forcibly converted those “other tribes” to their ways of thinking and religions. Improved war technologies helped spread hostile microorganisms and destroyed cultures with better spiritual ideas that could have propelled humanity towards using the “spiritual” powers as we do. That knowledge existed in their holy books for a thousand and a half years, but they do not use it.

The Earth humans have an inkling that they are related to the central supreme power they call God, but can’t figure out how. They can’t know him without imagining seeing him. They don’t understand that human eyes are not the right tool for doing it. They don’t even follow the commandment not to try to make an image of God. They think in words, and words are images.

Earth’s humans must find new, more accurate words to convey the power of “belief” or “faith”. There is a way to communicate with God without words, pictures, computers, and so on.

As I said in the beginning, this is how I assume an Alien describing humanity to his brethren using our language. Yes, the secret is in the language.

Since we are (hopefully) locked up avoiding contact with others, I see an opportunity to think deeply about philosophical questions that perhaps we never considered before. Enjoy.

 

 

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

Human Aliens - Bing images