Who will win the war?

 

Who will win the war?

In the event of a war, Israelis promptly go back to their reserve positions or wherever their presence is required. They grow up knowing that the Jewish state is much smaller than the Muslim states around it and that even those at peace wouldn’t cry if Israel was gone. Muslims don’t accept losing lands to non-Muslims. In Canada and the West, Muslims are the most peaceful people, but in the Middle East, many are not. Folks like the extremists in Iran or Afghanistan often educated them. Consequently, Israelis don’t dare lose a war regardless of how they feel about their internal politics.

When on October 7th Hamas tortured, kidnapped, and killed 1200 Israelis, the rest assumed that their faith would be the same if they didn’t all fight together for their lives. Most Israelis grew up hearing stories about what happened to Jews who didn’t fight. First the Jews of Europe and later the Jews in Israel who fought against the Palestinians and all the Arab countries at once.

Now, Israel boasts one of the best armies in the world, and its entire population undergoes training in the arts of war and functions as a well-disciplined unit. You don’t get to choose who you will fight, but follow your orders to the best of your ability. The faith of your family and friends is on your shoulders.

Stories come out of human minds.

Yosy is a reserve pilot. He is a newly married teacher and has a baby boy. He heard on the news that Hamas burned babies in ovens and then got the call. Report immediately to your unit. A jeep was all ready at the front of his home to take him and he barely hugged his wife Yafa and kissed the baby before running to war. The vehicle was equipped with a siren and flashing lights and in less than an hour; he was at the military base hearing and watching the planes taking off.

He knew where he was and the names of people around. A short while later, dressed in his flight suit, he was waiting to take the plane assigned to him. His briefing told him he would fly to a destination in Gaza and bomb a building next to a school. Yesterday he was teaching at a school. His emotions were fighting his training and sense of duty. The building's residents, targeted for bombing, should have been alerted by now. That wasn’t a part of his mission.

Seated in the familiar cockpit all strapped in, he felt at home. He was less than a year from active duty and years of training and practice. The distance of flying in Israel is minimal in a supersonic jet. What about the kids around the building he was going to bomb crossed his mind? Their people burnt babies in ovens, his mind replied. But they didn’t. Their parents shouldn’t have voted terrorists into government.

His eyes rested on the terrain below. He knew every area of Israel and Gaza from the air. The buildings were small in the distance and he couldn’t see the people, but knew they were there. In his mind’s eye, he pictured them dancing as they did at Nine Eleven. They always do when they hear about Americans or Israelis being hurt. They shout Allahu Akbar and shoot in the air. But we hurt them first, crossed his mind. They refused peace; he remembers his teacher in school saying. He remains vigilant just in case the enemy has some anti-air weapons, but they don’t. In the distance, he saw a salvo of missiles heading toward the Israeli side. He circled around and saw the Iron Dome going up to meet the offense. They are shooting at my family; he thought. But the children did nothing. Bombs away.

The smoke rose, and Yosy couldn’t see a thing. Only the pictures in his mind. Bodies buried, fires, and kids crying can’t find their parents. Choking dust and smoke. It’s a war that they started. They didn’t just kill they tortured and beheaded people.

Yosy’s grandmother used to tell him stories about the war. She said that there is a God and against him is the dark Lord. They fight in our minds, she repeated often. If we go for revenge and terror, the dark Lord wins. Everybody will kill everyone else. People can change, but it starts with us. God has to win in your minds.

They planned the attack on Israel for a long time. Equipment and training take long to obtain. Brainwashing of participants is not instantaneous. They predicted the effects and calculated the use of ordinary Gazan's sufferings to sway world opinion. It was all executed meticulously and we may ask, why now?

The answer is that Israel and Saudia Arabia were close to signing a peace agreement. The Iranian people wouldn’t oppose it, but the leadership couldn’t have it. Both the Israelis killed in the music festival and surrounding towns, as well as the poor everyday Palestinians, are paying with their blood for an old religious and political feud.

Yosy and his comrades will have to deal with their mental health problems for a long time. Their political leader may turn himself from a wanted man to a hero and the world may be at war. Some people don’t care. The dark Lord already possesses their souls.

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

Old Man’s Thoughts.

 

 Old Man’s Thoughts.

When I was about 25, my boss told me I must join our pension plan. It did not impress me. It was a large sum, and I was too young to think about someday when I would be 65 and receive a benefit. I didn’t trust the politicians even in those days when they did much more for us than they do now.

More money in our pockets is a good election slogan, but we can’t do it. I couldn’t at 25 make a significant commitment to save for retirement. I truly believed that I would do something that would provide me with the money that I would need for retirement. I and some millions of young people bought into the American dream. We were going to work hard and get rich, and it didn’t happen.

Thank God someone wiser organized pension plans that were invested professionally and accumulated the money needed for the later years of life. That money financed some ventures that made more money and left us with enough to live the rest of our lives comfortably without asking the young generation for help. Yes, our pensions are financed by us and our employers. The money should be invested in our future and not for politician’s pet projects.

It worked well until politicians decided to dip into it for their own benefit. They could and did take over managing the money and lost as I expected. Good politicians are not necessarily good investment managers. By investing for political reasons, they lose but don’t care. In four or eight years, they will collect their pensions and go play a new game.

Now I am the last of my group of friends from the old days. My best friend, (and my best man), is dying from COVID and other health issues. For me, what’s left is isolation and prayers to stay alive a little longer. Each time that I go out, I meet some folks who tell me not to get vaccinated since they had some health issues after getting vaccinated. They feel justified in recommending not to listen to the doctors since they themselves know better. I choose to listen to my doctor.

However, all the COVID issues will be forgotten ten years from now. We have bigger problems to deal with. We live in a scary world which doesn’t have to be that way. Natural disasters, wars, baffling weather, hate, and vengeance are just a few things I see. Greed and competition for turf are more common than any positive emotions. Almost anywhere I look people are divided half against the other half. Yet the Earth can provide for all and people can solve all the problems we have without fighting. If we give all people what they need, not want, we will have a lot to spare.

When we search history and pre-history, we see a few interesting facts. There have been great civilizations before us. They either failed to protect themselves or destroyed each other and disappeared. Knowledge that we don’t yet possess existed on this planet several times over and was wiped out. It arouses my curiosity and makes me think about where we are heading.

All the past generations had a conflict between good and evil or light and dark. Only the difference is blurred out. Those who win always write history. The side that lost gets no air time. Yet, if we could ask those who lived before us, we would always find people believing that the side we are talking to is the side of good and the other the side of bad.

All sides have good and bad intermingled. All sides get corrupted by power and people feel sorry for the weak but join the strong. This is enhanced by those who preach that God is on their side. No, He isn’t.

God created not the same but equal and gave humans free will. Now, He is waiting to see what we will do. Will we join the dead civilizations or be the ones created in His image? We are living through the latest test right now. It is being tested around each kitchen table, in every community, and worldwide. None of us escapes the test. It is between my wife and me, and between America and China at the same time. It is decided by loving negotiations and by great modern equipped armies.

A relatively slight change in people’s outlook on life can solve problems and perhaps save the world. Why are we not doing it? Mostly because none of us wants to lose and all of us wish to win. Those are animal instincts, not human values. This is where we need help from God. If we all accepted that God wants us to have His kingdom on Earth, we could have it.

Sadly, we may have to fight for it. Rudolph will not give up his leadership position since he has the red nose. We will do what we must as well as we can not forgetting that peace and happiness are the goals.

Goodness can become a reality in some small place and spread throughout the whole body. People follow the example, good or bad. The actual fight is inside each of us and we must believe that we can win. Some day cooperation will eliminate competition.

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

A balanced life, for free.

 

A balanced life, for free.

If you ask me about my level of happiness, living in the Crowsnest Pass Alberta, I will rate it high. My place is beautiful, and friendly, has wonderful services, and is full of potential. Yet, when the UN does its World Happiness Report rating of how happy people are in their countries, Canada doesn’t score as high as expected. The northern European countries score the highest even without all the natural advantages that we have. The weather is the same and we all are educated and enjoy modern health care. Why are they happier than we are?

The other day I was en route back to Blairmore in the dark. The temperature was 6° C in Nanton, so I opted to take Highway 22. In five minutes, the temperature dipped to 1° C hovering back and forth to 0° C. A vehicle in front of me swerved dangerously in front of an oncoming truck and I slowed down to 60 km/h. It was going to be a long drive home. Once I cleared the foothills, the road dried up, and the temperature stayed at 1° C. It occurred to me that minute differences in our environment or even just thinking can make an enormous difference to our quality of life. What is one degree? Dry road instead of ice.

Take Sweden compared to Canada. It’s a smaller country with about ten million people versus our almost forty million, or the US, close to 400 million. They produce much of what they need. Their one brand of automobiles, Volvo, is competing with the other major brands in the world. People who want a good car for a good price buy it. Volvo invented the seat belts and provided the patent free to the rest of the world, saving many lives. Their simple sensible brands do well. You can find H&M clothing in most fancy malls. IKEA products are found everywhere.

The Swedes dress nice, but nothing flashy. It is considered bad manners for the Swedish people to flaunt their wealth. They have millionaires and billionaires, but you wouldn’t know it. No Mar-a-Lagos and golden staircases in Sweden. A few years ago, a picture became viral depicting their Princess Madeleine in the street picking up her dog’s poop. All they do is aim at moderation and practicality. People learn to say no to what they don’t need and consider equality in all they do. They have a perfect public transportation system and use it. Bus stops are fitted with daylight bulbs to help ward off depression in the long winters.

The owner of IKEA, who is worth around fifty billion, was once denied entry to a gala where he was supposed to receive a prestigious award because he arrived by bus. He wouldn’t have fared much better if he drove his fifteen-year-old Volvo instead.

Driving is a way for most people to show their wealth around the world. In Sweden, you don’t see many expensive cars. The people are content driving the dependable Volvo, which is very comfortable and behaves very well on roads like our Highway 22 on a freezing night.

Jealousy is a major reason for human conflicts. In Sweden, there is hardly anyone to be jealous of. Swedes don’t enjoy showing off. Everyone in Sweden is middle class, ensuring a balanced society. They have a different attitude toward work. There is no competition to avoid getting fired, as we often have. People do their work well without it and never work overtime. They value time with family, friends, nature, and the arts. At the same time, they managed to develop and produce one of the world’s best fighter planes, while Canadians will pay hundreds of millions of dollars for an American fighter that may arrive late.

All Swedes have generous holidays, free education, and healthcare they can afford. Taxes cover the payment for generous maternal and paternal leave that Swedes expect. They pay some of the highest taxes in the world, depending on their income. If you are a top earner, you may top 50%. There is no monetary reward for overworking, and people don’t do it. Much different, for example, from Japan, where work takes away all other values in life. Here, balance is more important than getting ahead. The Swedes will defend their choice to pay and receive what they do. They don’t need lawyers and accountants to file their taxes. They are happy the way it is.

Just like many Canadians, they are able to enjoy the long, cold winters. They take their vitamin D and play winter sports. They see the beauty of winter scenery and like wearing winter clothes for a while. An old Swedish lady told me that if they didn’t have the winters, they wouldn’t enjoy summer as much. Summer is a good time for waxing the skis.

A balanced life offers them the opportunity to enjoy their family, and they do. Many keep small summer homes and spend much time on the water. Moms can mother and guys can father. They don’t live for show; they exist naturally. In the sixties, we were mesmerized by their longer lives and began our fitness craze that is still going on.

A tiny difference in mentality can have a tremendous difference in life, just like one degree can change the drive home from stress to joy. Acceptance and balance versus a constant attempt to show superiority

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

The world or the Money.

 

The world or the Money.

About a hundred and some years ago, a smart man named Henry Ford introduced the assembly line. Cars were produced up to that point by highly skilled people who understood all the parts and developed their skills over many years. With the assembly line, many workers could learn how to make small parts and fit them together to make the vehicles. Each didn’t know how to make a car. It wasn’t a new idea. The Venetians in Italy did the same to build ships hundreds of years earlier. It was new for now and set up the US on the road to prosperity.

Mr Ford understood a very important aspect of economics. If you produce all those cars, who is going to afford to buy them? He insisted that those who build the automobile must make enough wages to purchase them. Of course, they must first have food, shelter, and other needs. The workers soon had enough money for indoor plumbing, entertainment, and many other conveniences that were invented, manufactured, and sold, creating economic prosperity.

The idea that Henry Ford started spread out throughout the United States fast and growth became synonymous with prosperity. Soon, people understood that increasing the population would catalyze economic growth. America didn’t have the European setbacks of wanting only what was good for its own nationality. They were open to any Caucasian people and made colored people available to serve them. Some races were more or less desirable than others. There were also fewer restrictions on space for growth. Other powers did not compete for space in the country because of its enormous size.

The United States was on the way to becoming a rival to the old colonial powers. New people flocked to get in and they built new economic centres on the East and West coasts. Some people became very rich while others enjoyed the American Dream as people marvel at dreaming about winning the lottery. All the prosperity and hard work didn’t save them from the great depression. Great wars were fought, and those who survived enjoyed a period of pleasant existence. The rich feared the spread of Communism and all were fearful of what Fascism could do. Hitler was fresh in their minds.

A period of peace and prosperity marked the time after the Second World War, even while the Cold War was raging in the background. The working people never had it so good. Now people learned how to use democracy to their advantage while the Elites focused on how to maximise their power and profits. They joined the religious fundamentalists for political reasons.

I remember discussing with fellow workers who were unsure about what benefits to request in the next union contract. Life was good and minorities, including women, felt reasonably good about how things were shaping. We fought, on many fronts, won, and now enjoyed the fruits.

Our European allies, including the defeated Germany, went the Social Democratic way, while America built itself on the Capitalistic model. The problem is that they didn’t read the end of the book about capitalism. Canada tried to stay in the middle lane.

The old British Empire, from which came both the US and Canada, ruled by dividing people. In North America existed many options to divide the population and set groups against each other. There was no firm sense of national unity. All the people had ancestors from many nations. There was no religious unity either. All faiths had strong representations. The elites chose to divide on economic grounds.

Soon we found ourselves in a new situation, with a higher Middle Class and a much bigger lower Middle Class. Blue collar shirts versus white collar shirts. Everyone was no longer seeking a better peaceful life but to climb on others for a higher position on the economic scale. The workers instead of savings had debt limits, while the others had investment portfolios. All wanted more government services and less taxes. GDP rose and resource extraction did as well.

The humans of Earth in the last few generations went on a rampage, exploiting natural resources as if there was no tomorrow. We forgot about future generations and the need for the planet to regenerate while we focused on competing for higher status.

No longer do people consider natural cycles to be the will of God, and we place our faith in our fledgling science. The planet groaned in pain. It gave life to so many life forms that now we are destroying its ability to sustain life.

A good example is oil. It bridged us from animal power to electronics, but now we are wasting it by unnecessarily burning it. The only consideration we have is the price per barrel and the financial dividends to investors or export taxes for governments. When we use all the oil, there is nothing on Earth that can replace it.

It is now the first time in human history that we have to sacrifice for yet unborn generations in the future. We may have to fight for their future. What will we do?

Worlds are created by what we call God. People make money.

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

Good versus Evil.

 

 Good versus Evil.

Each of us can go back to the earliest memory of our life. It may be a genuine memory or one that we were told about. We also remember “the bad guys.” Our parents or guardians pass on to us the fear and hate of some others. In my case, it was the Nazis, followed by the Communists and the Arabs. They were all bad guys. My parent’s friends and the people they dealt with were the “good guys’, but we had to watch almost everyone since they could cheat us.

We had good German people, Russian and Arab friends, and neighbors, but the nation or race was scary. Humans need a boogie man who is worse than us. We don’t manage to be as good as some people are, but we can always find someone less than ourselves. We cheat in business and call it smart, but watch the less fortunate noticing their deficiencies. There is a fear of homeless people, for example. We don’t help them since they supposedly will use our money to buy cigarettes and booze; we say. Some undoubtedly will. Some high-class people will cheat all of us out of a lot of money and we will try to gain their favor. The same with politicians who gain from their positions. We shower them with compliments and they provide political favors in return.

There are signs that humans like us lived on Earth as far back as 200,000 years ago. We have evidence of writings from over 10,000 years ago. It seems as if the fight between good and evil always existed. Also, there was always a competition for leadership. People naturally fight for the alfa dog position. This is animal instinct behavior. There are always people who consider it differentiating between animals and humans. It is a conflict between those who look for selfish gain and others seeking cooperation for the benefit of all. The Athenians were developing democracy while the Spartans wanted strength at all costs.

There are still many people around who remember the time that Star Wars movie became a hit. That sci-fi piece of art depicted the distinction between good and evil and humanity's interaction with the supernatural.

It had the appeal of new special effects, great cinematography, and talented acting. The movie took the world by storm. To this day, there are people in Great Britain who formed an official religion around the principal theme of believing in the “Force”. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess what the “Force” is representing. I call it the universal mind, since its other more common name is no longer popular.

In Star Wars we witness a corrupt dark lord using the force for evil reasons, wanting to win the leadership of all intelligent life forms. The Force is an invisible great power humans can use for right or wrong if they know how. It plays with humans, seemingly to let us learn some lessons that it alone knows.

We can easily see in the Old Testament how the Gods (rolled into one) can be mean beyond our comprehension. Take, for example, Noah’s flood. People didn’t listen, so a flood killed the whole Earth’s population, women, children, and animals. Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated supposedly for sexual misbehavior. The Egyptian people suffered the ten plagues after God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, leading him to anger God. In the end, all Egyptian firstborn males were killed, and Pharaoh’s army was drowned. God, or the Force was also used to punish His own people in the cruelest ways. It was a world in which the power of a spiritual being kept law and order using powers not available to the opposing force.

The entire picture was changed two thousand years ago when God fathered a son who walked the Earth in a human form. Now, words took the first place and people used miracles only minimally. The power of God was diverted to the use of wisdom. The son taught humans to be shepherds and what they must do themselves to have a perfect society on a healthy planet.

We struggled but couldn’t achieve the goal. In came a new idea from the art world. The Jedi of Star Wars. Humans trained beyond anything known so far, who used the Force for good instead of evil. They could fight, but fairly and only for the good.

A new option was discovered. The conflict now can be not for dominating and subjugating the world but for making it better for all while controlling evil by the only thing it understands. The measured use of force dominated by intellect and good intentions.  

There is no need for a strong man or emperor in that world. Power could be in the hands of each community designed for their circumstances. An educated, well-trained super moral Jedi cast can serve the Force, and the people aimed to build the perfect society. To preserve our humanity, we would combine old biological technology with artificial intelligence. Otherwise, we may be another failed experiment and something else will take our place. Future archeologists will dust our bones and artifacts trying to figure out where we went wrong.

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

Realities.

 

 Realities.

What can be truer than reality? I see it and I believe it. Courts function on that principle. If a crime was committed, we search for eyewitnesses, or lately for camera footage showing what really happened. As I was growing up and learning to be a human being (we all do) science also grew. Humans materialized some of the greatest scientific discoveries just before I came to earth. I admired the people who were famous for their discoveries, like Albert Einstein in science and the Mahatma Gandhi in politics.

Just recently, people, or I should say, influential thinkers, began to question what we learned and took for granted. Some of it came from studying old writings that were not available until lately. Perhaps it was available but not understood. For example, in the beginning, there was the word, and the word was God.

How can God be a word? One likely explanation is: A word is an idea. Could it be that those who wrote the bible considered God to be an idea? There is no reason to believe that they didn’t. God can be anything, any place, at any time.

There are people now seriously doubting that reality itself is what we always thought it is. I touched upon this before in other articles. Life could be a dream. Some dreams are ridiculous and we know we are dreaming. Some can be so real that we don’t know they are dreams until we wake up. One philosopher said that all of life is a dream from which we wake up only a few times to know that it is a dream. We don’t have to wake up. Possibly when we die, we wake up.

It is possible that we exist only in the material world, and we are material beings. We could be like a caterpillar that turns into a cocoon, dies, and from it emerges a beautiful butterfly.  

Now there is a new idea becoming popular. My generation is shifting away from traditional religious beliefs and exploring new ways to understand our innate connection to a higher power beyond material things. Our senses, visual, hearing, touch, smell and so on — only detect what is in light or exists because of light. There is a side that we call “dark”, but only because we can’t see in it.

A bat, for example, doesn’t see in light the way we do. It uses ultrasonic sounds to see and exists very well. Much more of our universe is a dark matter than that which we see. The possibilities of life forms existing in it out of our spectrum are endless. A life form may be nothing like we are used to. It can be invisible to us, and we may, but not necessarily, be invisible to it.

One theory that now is the subject of many books appeals to me most. It became popular with the movie, The Matrix. We could be existing in the mind of a computer or a biological entity, that makes up our existence to be real to us.

All of what we call reality is orchestrated in our brains. What I see is visible in light. My eyes collect bits of light, converting them to electrical signals traveling in my skull to my brain. The brain interprets those signals into pictures that I use for creating my reality in my conscience. I learned to create reality with all its beauty and ugliness, and I do so all the time. It’s like the ultimate virtual reality, but we don’t know who started it and why.

To know more about reality, we first must answer the question, who we are. Sounds easy, but it’s not so. At church, we say my body or my soul. We admit that I am not either. If it’s mine then it can’t be me. Then, who are we?

I go back to the biblical story about Moses asking God to tell him His name. God said “I am” who I am. The bible often mentions that someone who died went to be with his past generations. His fathers. It could be his mothers also depending on how we interpret it.

I always lived in my reality, never doubting it. As I said, I see it, so I believe it. Other people say and do things that seem strange to me. The world is constantly in conflict between good and evil, but we disagree with which is which.

As I get older, I realize more and more that there is more than one reality for humans. It strikes me as impossible, yet it happens. As far as I can understand, people convince themselves that something is a reality. When we do, it is impossible to change. After all, each of us thinks, how can we change reality?

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

A nice place in the mountains.

 

 A nice place in the mountains.

About 55 years ago, my family bought our first little car and went exploring our new country. On one of those trips, we ended up in a set of mining towns called The Crownest Pass. It was in the mountains but wasn’t impressive. There were some gas stations and restaurants, so we stopped for lunch. My mom ran a finger over the seat of a chair and lifted it marked with black dust. The server hurried up and wiped the table and chairs, saying something about it being a coal mining town, and we ordered our food. A local woman at the next table said something about how we should see the wash after it was dried on the clothesline.

The folks around us had a certain look to them. They were kind of gray, wrinkled, and their heads were bent forward. My mom said that it reminded her of some mining town she visited in her childhood in Europe. Miners, she said, were mountain people. They were good hard-working folks but didn’t live long. It's called here Black Lung, my father added. We drove around a bit, noticing stores, churches, and even a car lot, but there was no reason to stay. Next, we visited a farming town, Pincher Creek, and it was brighter and gave us a cleaner feeling. My dad said that it would be nice if Pincher Creek was in the mountains.

When I was about ten years away from retirement, I started looking for a little town to retire to. A co-worker mentioned the Crowsnest Pass. She said that there were no more operating coal mines, and the place was clean. There were some little towns to choose from and you could purchase a place in the mountains. In the more touristy places, one could only lease a place but not own it.

I made another trip to the land beyond the Frank slide and it pleasantly surprised me. The Pass was clean and offered all the benefits of mountain towns, but at a reasonable price. There were fewer businesses and people, but a vibrant community. People describe Canadians as “nice” but here the people were nicer for some reason. I met another person who was looking at real estate and he said, “This is the place that time has forgotten”. Another said that I should visit when they do the Thunder in the Valley. Others in Calgary also described the great show of fireworks in the mountain valley.

I found my retirement place. Purchased some land and built a modest home. Originally, the people told me about great winds, a place where there is nothing to do, no cultural life, a depressed economy, and everyone running away. I don’t see any of it. Now I am an old-timer here. I can’t get over how blessed I am. The Pass economy picked up, new people are here and the local people no longer wish to leave the place as they did a while back. They see the value of where they are. Soon those who left in the early days will come back to retire here. After trying the rat race of the city, folks realize what we have here. We live in God’s country. All we have to do is open our eyes and see it.

In my 25 years here, I saw many folks leaving the place to be closer to family who moved away or to medical facilities. After a while, they come for a visit and they don’t look the same. It’s not only the natural aging, but being away from a great community and mountain air. While in the city they wait twenty hours at Emergency, here they get treated in the first hour. Kids get more attention in schools and there is hardly anything that we can’t buy here if we can wait for a week. You can sit at a local coffee shop and in a short while make new friends. It’s easy to join a club of like-minded people or watch local sports. People still go to their choice of church and treat the other religions with the respect that they like to be treated. It is no wonder that here we can meet older people living independently or with little help.

Across from my home, I see a holiday home that is often rented out. Our lives here always leave the visitors from near and far impressed. Some come down and talk to me. Often they express how lucky they think we are.

I think that what happened here is interesting. All the folks who wanted a busy life full of stress and constant competition left in the pursuit of happiness. Those who remained were people happy with simpler lives close to nature where we care about each other. Here, we cherish a different set of values. Less glitter and more warm hearths. Creativity stumps accumulation and relationships beat showing off.

Winter clouds set over the mountains, and the Pass is getting ready for another winter. The Plains First Nations used to come here for the winters. To me, it’s more beautiful here with the snow than in the hot parts of the world where there is no seasonal variation.

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

The Romans renamed Israel Palestine.

 

The Romans renamed Israel Palestine.

When people know you were born in some country, they assume you know a lot about it, even if you left it as a child. Last Saturday, when the Hamas Palestinians attacked Israel, I was facing questions. People know I was born in Israel.

The attack was well-planned, meticulously carried out, and designed to terrorize a nation. Those who carried it out were well-equipped and prepared to die for what they believed was a just cause. We saw a bunch of murderous terrorists attack innocent people, but to them, they were martyrs giving their lives to save their people. They did it by exacting the highest possible price. They take being called animals, terrorists, or anything else as a compliment because it shows their bravery, skill, and commitment to their cause. All of them who were killed believed that their actions would deliver them straight to paradise, where God would reward them.

In that attack on Israel, many innocent people suffered and died. To me, they are the grandchildren of those I grew up with. The places Hamas destroyed look exactly like where I lived while growing up. The blood that was spilled joined blood from many generations of people who attempted to solve problems by force and war. In the Middle East, the law of the desert is strong. People believe that brutality is the only answer that will prevent people from hurting you. Here we have the same kind of people who want revenge to be a deterrent.

Israel, where I grew up, comprised of people who survived the brutality of the Second World War. The atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, and other colonial-minded leaders marked all my teachers. They told us, kids, how important it was to keep our humanity when others perform atrocities. I heard so often that “we don’t want to be like them”, the Nazis, or Soviets. They encouraged us to be civilized in dealing with the Palestinians who lived with us. I lived on a farm with a Palestinian family of shepherds and shared a desk in grade nine with a Christian Palestinian boy. They didn't sympathize with Hamas and were worried about the extremist Jewish nationalists now in Netanyahu's coalition. Those wish to rid Israel of other religions disregarding some biblical teachings to treat outsiders fairly.

Of course, other groups are against Zionism, wanting to live in the holy land in peace with all others. There are also many political parties representing a whole range of ideologies. The Jews who are not pro-Zionism are not very popular these days, but there are many.

During the planning stages of Israel under British rule, Zionists opposed Palestinians living alongside Jews because of concerns about democratic influence on the Jewish state. They had the numbers in their favor. Many Palestinians were warned about the upcoming independence war of 1948 and told they would be safe if they temporarily moved to Gaza and other areas under Arab control. Israel won and they couldn’t come back. Their young people started violent movements such as Hamas that the majority didn’t support. We Canadians had our FLQ and the Riel rebellion. It is always a fight for land and freedom and always exploited by some who want power. The innocent pays the price.

I predicted the current war months ago when Netanyahu aligned with Israeli groups aiming to use military force to remove Palestinians from disputed territories. They provoked again and again, leading the more militant factions on both sides to take action, which they did. No one expected Israel to be caught flat-footed as they were.

What happened reminded me of Pearl Harbour and 9/11. Putin is the beneficiary since the world took its eyes off Ukraine. Now many Israeli peace-loving citizens are dead, and the poorest Palestinians are suffering like never before. Those remaining alive are told again to leave their homes and later come back. When they will try, I am sure there will be new conditions attached.

The Jewish people who suffered so much in other countries, were given the land of Israel as a “land without people to a people with no land”. The people on the land were called “natives” and considered less than human. The British and the West knew some who aligned with Hitler like the Mufti of Jerusalem.

Both sides in the Israeli conflict are partly responsible, but innocent people are suffering. The world is trying to use their suffering for political gains.

If I had a chance to tell the Israelis and Palestinians what I think they should do, what would I say? Very smart people have been trying for years to find a solution, and so far they haven’t. I am not that smart, so I try to get answers from the scriptures. Can I tell them to forgive and forget? To love one another? I can’t, since I don’t believe they could.

The best I could offer is that since Jews, Muslims, and Christians all believe in the Ten Commandments, they can follow them. Don’t interpret, or philosophy, just google it or look in your holy book and do what it says. You can’t fix the past but can make concessions for the future. Do it fairly and start again. Don’t take too long. Please pray for peace.

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

What is it all for, anyway?

 

What is it all for, anyway?

She was 18 and went into labor prematurely. The people in the Kibbutz in Israel chose to send her to the hospital with a tractor instead of the horses. I arrived in the world. I couldn’t speak or do anything else, and I was naked. As hard as I tried, I could never remember that time. All I know is that I accumulated things.

A few years later we lived on a farm and a couple of my parents’ friends visited from the city with their boy, who was roughly my age. Our parents had us in my room and took all my toys out for us to play with. Arick, the other boy, started to sort my toys. He took them one by one, looked at them, and placed the nicest ones behind him, saying, “This is mine”. The cheap and broken toys he left on the floor beside me. I tried to get some back, and he pushed me hard, saying, “It’s mine”. My mom came in and saw tears in my eyes. What’s the matter she said? In the voice of a three-year-old, I explained, Arick is taking all my toys. I didn’t have many.

He had my wooden truck, my stuffed vinyl dog, Pluto, I used to sleep with, and a few more. Don’t worry said mom, he will not take them home. I was worried, and I wanted to play with my toys right now, but my mom told me to be quiet. I was learning one of the biggest lessons that we learn in this life. The world wasn’t fair. Later on, my mom cut the cake she made and gave Arick a bigger piece with more icing. I said I didn’t want cake, so he ate mine as well. So much for peaceful protest.

Life went on. When I was sixteen, my family emigrated to Canada while Arick and his family stayed in Israel. I started a new life accumulating things and knowledge. Arick remained in Israel and was killed in the next war. He was my best childhood friend. I felt guilty, but being a minor, I had to go where my parents went. My dad fought a few wars for Israel. I tried to join the Canadian army, but they couldn’t take me before I was a citizen. I settled for civilian life and, like everyone else, accumulated things. Luckily, for me, a priest I knew, convinced me to upgrade my education. Those were the good years in Alberta when Peter Lougheed was premier. Higher education was available cheaply, and we were building an educated workforce.

I earned a university degree, studied in a technical college, and worked hard for promotions that came one after another. My health wasn’t the best and again, luckily for me, the country accepted universal health care. Now came the period we call middle life. Building a home, raising kids, upgrading vehicles, and trying my damnedest to keep up with the ever-changing world.

A few years later, the now-advanced medical discoveries, saved my life. The doctors implanted a top-of-the-line Pacemaker Defibrillator in my chest, which gave me an extended warranty period. I was alive, but not young again. The question popped into my mind: why am I alive? I can no longer reproduce, and nature doesn’t keep creatures around when they don’t contribute to the genetic pool. Why are we alive?

My generation attempted to solve many human problems. We had the longest period without a major war. Went to the moon, prolonged natural life, saved for the later part of life, and gave human rights to some minority groups, the biggest of them women.

Now the Catholic Church is considering women clergy, and women in politics are common. Sadly, they are becoming like men instead of gracing society with a feminine perspective. My female premier is fighting against measures designed to improve our chance to remain alive on our only planet. She is enticing people with greed. The old Pope is working to convince us to do what we can to prolong human existence.

Did God allow me an additional lifetime to join the fight? My priorities are my family, my faith, and my country. None will survive if we don’t act decisively now. Are old insignificant people like me expected to fight for the world? Where are the young people?

Young people have robust bodies and accumulate things as we did. They look for new experiences and security that they rarely have. Old people know that the Universal Mind doesn’t act on words. The world is unfair. God senses emotions and intentions. We, the old people, now with extended lives have those.

At the end of life, when we will go back naked as when we were born, we no longer do all things for ourselves. That is when we are honest and send the right messages to the invisible mind that formed and controls the universe.

Prayers can work better than physical effort, but only when originated in the right way. Fear, unconditional love, self-sacrifice, and other pure emotions influence reality.

I honor all religions and see something good in all major political ideas. Life is a gift of time in which I can get things and give them away. I can make changes with emotions and intentions. I can’t explain how.

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

Note: The above article was written before the latest war began.

A story with no end.

 

A story with no end.

I woke up just as the sun was making things visible. From the living room window, I observed a bear running by the base of the hill across. He ran until there was a slope going up and continued at the same speed up the hill. Just a few years ago, the hill had bears, moose, deer cougars, and smaller animals. Now it’s full of houses. Should I call anyone to trap and possibly kill the bear? He could be dangerous to people, especially if they feed and try to pet him. A wild bear is not a good prop for taking selfies. Is it more important to stay safe or to let nature do what it has been doing for generations? Who’s hill is it, anyway?

There is a rock ball hurling through space at tremendous speed and on it many life forms, human beings are dominant. For some unknown reason, it made itself just perfect for our existence as we adapted to it. We slowly learned how to thrive, but the invisible power seems to disagree with our methods.

Life for some of us is great, but not for most of us. That includes the animals. The Earth, spinning and speeding through the galaxy, is able to provide all that its creatures need, but the Universal Mind demands cooperation. Humans, unlike other life forms, must use their intellect to survive. The more we know, the more we must do. Nature designed us to be competitive and improve through evolution. Works for everything else, but not for us.

Just like the natural competition between males and females, we can’t exist without each other. When we fight, we come to a point where it becomes obvious that we will destroy ourselves, be gone, or start again from scratch. It happened before and will happen again. We have an almost equal split on most issues.

Humans developed technologies and machines that can perform tasks that were once considered miraculous a short while ago. Much of the recent development has been to prolong our natural life, improve health, produce food, and save us from pain. Much more is added each day to make our lives easy and save us from doing work. Lives in the advanced areas of the world improved and communication increased exponentially. Now people around the world know how much better it is to live in the developed world and the majority who are not wealthy see and envy what the others enjoy.

Many people are trying to join the good life peacefully, even if they perform the undesirable tasks that others refuse to do. This doesn’t work for their children who are born into wealthy environments. They expect returns for their sacrifice and hard work, without needing to cheat or steal to get it. While this is happening, others are risking all to join in. In the poor places, there are wars and insurrections that filter into our country.

Just a short time ago, we had to break up a fight between opposing parties from Africa. Canada is dealing with diplomatic issues over past crimes in Ukraine and Poland, and a scandal from India. We have problems to solve over the treatment of our own First Nations when the country was being formed. There are still many people around who wish to restart the conflict between the French and English Canadians. Others are fighting over sexual variations, sex changes, and abortions. Just as many people are looking for fights as those wanting peace. We have the most fresh water in the world and now we are fighting over water. Global Warming is causing unexpected conflicts.

People find things to fight about everywhere. In some places like Afghanistan, it is about religious practices. Other places fight over political ideologies. Many more are at war over economic issues. The rich want to have more money and the poor wish to have some and divide it amongst many. Very often, conflicts arise about raw power and domination. The biggest war ever was between a few powerful men who wanted to dominate the world. When they do, people fight for freedom and independence. Anything scarce causes people to fight. Gold was the main reason for Europeans taking over South America.

As far as I can see, the biggest reason for fighting is to dominate portions of the planet and do on it what the inhabitants wish or must do to stay alive. People get violent about their native soil and often have some ideas about getting some of the ground that others occupy. Bears and other animals feel the same about their territory. With animals and some people, we feel justified in killing them and taking their land. Take for example the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh or people in parts of Ukraine.

In my birth country, Israel, Jews have been fighting Palestinians for thousands of years. It is clear to see if we want, that there is pressure from somewhere to teach us we can only win by cooperation and not by fighting and winning. Will we do it, or die fighting? The answer remains unwritten. The story needs an ending.

We must have Democracy and use it to benefit all.

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

Politics vs. Faith.

 

 Politics vs. Faith.

Some people just say hi, and look as if they know me. Others ask me if I am the guy from the paper and say they like what I write. One mailed me a pleasant letter. It is all welcome since I write for them. One last week voiced a concern. He said he doesn’t believe in God and he doesn’t believe that the world is in trouble. He looks at things statistically and true enough: less than one percent of homes in BC burnt last summer. I felt like saying, yes, let’s do nothing until over 50% of homes are burnt. We will solve the problem later. Let us think positively.

I am being sarcastic here. I have strong feelings about beliefs and thinking, much based on primitive knowledge that is not popular in the Western world. It takes a lot of research to find out about the old knowledge that is not written down. With all of our outstanding medical technology, not many are interested in jungle spirituality.

I don’t follow any guru or shaman for my faith. I don’t go telling people that every word in my Christian bible is the word of God either. People should do the work and figure it out for themselves. Because I can read Hebrew, I know that there are variations in translations.

We live in times where the truth is the hardest thing to come by. Confusion is built into our nature. In the Bible, the humans were trying to be like God, so they built a tower to Heaven. God didn’t want the competition, so he made them/us speak in different languages. Soon we/they were at each other’s throats. Go forward in history to the time in which the resurrected son of God was forming a new religion and read on.

Jesus was sending twelve simple, probably illiterate fishermen, out to change the world. He gave them a gift of tongues that sounded much like a new version of Google Translate. They used it and today his religion is the largest in the world. The secret is to remove confusion and work towards one goal. We can do it, but we don’t. Our nature is to set ourselves apart and try to get ahead of each other. Presently, we do it by following political ideologies.

Private interests play a role in politics, making everything politicized and lacking genuine action. The politics are played with private interest in mind. As I am watching, my province is busy trying to break away from the Canada Pension Plan. It is one of the best pension systems in the world and it works because we all are in it. One province had its own before the rest started, so they are keeping theirs. Now Alberta wants out since we have a younger population. If we do that, the rest of Canada will have to cover our share and possibly ruin the Canada Pension Plan. People will be forced to purchase insurance and the poor who need it the most will be left out in the cold.

One of the first stories in the Bible, which so many of us claim to believe in, is about Cain and Abel. That comes from the beginning of our civilization. Cain killed his brother out of jealousy. God asked him where his brother was and he answered with a question. Am I my brother’s keeper? He was not. God punished him by marking him for everyone to see. That is not much. However, it was clear to the ancient people who wrote the story down that we can’t survive if we look only after ourselves. We are social animals and need each other.

Alberta now is becoming much like Cain from the Bible. The whole world is realizing that continuing to use the energy that we became addicted to is harmful, even if we insist it is most ethical against all the signs. We are trying to break the Health Care system by privatizing small portions and are harming the Canada Pension Plan. How long is it going to be before we will not dare to tell people where we are from?

Our government wants to determine our actions with referendums. They know that this is the easiest way to cheat. You can see what Brexit did to Great Britain. Referendum questions can be misleading. I look at what is happening to our insurance and worry. We have been hit with extreme weather events less than BC, but much of our personal wealth is uninsurable or very expensive to insure. Year after year is warmer than the one before. Believing in Global Warming is not determining if it happens or not.

My goal is to survive and not be ashamed to show my face as a Canadian from Alberta. I want politicians to represent me, not try to shape me.

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

Is “Me” going to survive Death?

 

 Is “Me” going to survive Death?

Mom, I said, where was ”I“ before I was born? You were in mom’s tummy she said. But before that? She said something about angels but I didn’t get it. Later in life, I came back to that question many times as I was learning new things but never got an actual answer. It was obvious why. No one ever told me who “I” was. It wasn’t my body, and it wasn’t my soul. I am the one who has the body and soul, but I don’t know who is “I am”.

Now I am considered “old” and I am asking where will I be after this life is over. When the doctor said, “You have a tumor, and it’s cancerous,” the question became more urgent. There is only limited time for me to find out before I’ll go there and folks rarely come back to tell us. Some people think they are experts on the subject, but they leave me full of questions. Heaven, they call the place of the dead, or hell if you were bad enough, but they don’t say who is “me” that will go there. Will I look like my body? I hope not. I never felt that my body was that great at all.

The church that I was born into has many books and teachings, but even if you read them all, you can’t find the answer to my question. Who is me? I have a body that is designed carefully for this life. It starts as an embryo, grows, learns, and later works. It is always waiting for something in the future.

When I first asked my mom the question, I was only less than three feet tall. I was always waiting to be older, stronger, and smarter, but when I did, I was waiting to be older and smarter yet. Never reached the point at which I can say I know. I waited to be an adult, to graduate, get a promotion, have kids, raise them, and every year go for vacations.

Life is a gift of time in a human body in which we play a game. The game has billions of potential moves since we play it with all the billions of people who are also playing and with the entire world. It doesn’t stop with the world since there is a universe that houses the world and it has no end. The part that makes it more interesting is the human invention called time. We are designed to function for up to about a hundred years and we know it. Do what you wish, if you can, but there will be an end. What comes after the end is a mystery that we can’t solve, only guess at.

I am not good at guessing. However, if I knew what comes after death, would I be the same? I refuse to believe that after this life I will sleep forever and all that I learned will be wasted.

As I struggle with those philosophical questions, another dimension arrives and gains popularity. It comes mostly with the young people playing with artificial intelligence gadgets. What if all that I learned is wrong and reality is not what we think it is? Young people are playing with very advanced virtual reality that keeps getting more sophisticated and convincing every day. When we will develop quantum computers, the border between what’s real and what is imagined will become blurrier. All we need is the computing power.

Serious scientists, including physicists, are awakening to new possibilities investigating old ideas with new technology. We built our modern science upon our ability to test and measure theories. There are many theories out there. Multiple universes, Matrix, and others. People have been questioning the validity of what we call reality for thousands of years. Major worldwide religions came up with ideas that seemed to contradict our Western beliefs until recently. Now, with renewed interest in spirituality, we see some similarities.

We are discovering astonishing facts when we use the latest technologies. The material world that we didn’t question for most of written history seems to be less solid than we thought. If we magnify what we assume are the building blocks of reality, we come up with nothing. The smallest particles of the atoms are mostly energy, with hardly any material substance at all. What we consider solid is only so at a certain frequency. 

Other scientists are deep into the study of dreams. In the biblical days, dreams were very important but later became fairy tales with no significant value. Now they are making a comeback. There is money invested into the study of dreams and their psychological values. There are books published by serious universities and professors.

Another so-called New Age idea that’s becoming a more serious study is the effect of human thoughts, not only on our own bodies but on events in reality. For a long time, people dismissed the idea as just prayers that do not affect reality, but now studies are designed to provide scientific proof that our thoughts can influence events. Researchers have recently been using water for demonstration purposes. The results are indisputable. Human thoughts and beliefs change material substance.

I don’t know where I was pre-birth or will be after this life. I am sure that, that which I call “me” will still be conscious.

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

Rural life and Communities.

 

 Rural life and Communities.

I am beginning to feel like a writer from the past. Often my articles start with a line similar to the old children’s stories that used to open with, “a long time ago in a faraway land”. I don’t have a time machine. The truth is that my stories were in my lifetime and here in Alberta. It feels as if it was in history in some other place. We like nostalgia and remember mostly the good things, but Alberta was a better place in many ways. People didn’t go on cruises, didn’t have homes full of unneeded, often unused stuff, and having a telephone and a black-and-white TV was the limit of technology we used. We had real walking talking friends instead of Facebook friends and told them what we liked instead of clicking “likes” and counting them.

Friends often met someplace and went together. Some groups met over kids’ activities, community sports, and, in those days, some church activities. Later, we went for coffee or even a meal together. Even those who made minimum wages could afford to go out. Since I didn’t belong to a social group with money to spare, we looked for places that cost little. One option in those years was to go to a hospital cafeteria.

The hospital kitchen served nutritious meals to patients, staff, and outsiders who could sit together at long tables and meet new people. It wasn’t fancy, but outsiders were welcome and had a nutritious, safe meal. We sat at the long tables and met nurses, doctors, and perhaps some homeless people.

Schools had cafeterias, daycares did, and some places provided meals for the needy, free of charge. The point I’d like to make is that we didn’t have situations where hundreds of people were catching diseases from one central kitchen. Now we do.

Last week a whole chain of daycares spread E’coli to their little trusting customers. Some kids are probably still hospitalized as you are reading this. It couldn’t have happened under the old system. They all share a central kitchen.

I look with tears in my eyes at the parents whose kids are fighting for their lives. Many had to stay away from work, causing problems all over the place and they don’t know where to leave their kids next week. They talk about class action lawsuits, but how will that help? We can’t buy kids for money or purchase health.

The Alberta that I remember, was built on communities that copied our rural life. A village had a doctor, a town had a clinic with some most needed equipment, and for big problems, we went to the nearest city. A village had a daycare where they cooked food for their kids. They cared. The same was true for a community in the city.

Now economics is the driving force. It is cheaper to cook on an industrial level, so we did away with kitchens in each hospital or school. Efficiency was prioritized over human interaction to benefit investors, but this caused a gap between producers and consumers. They don’t live happy lives but exist to produce and consume. They are always pursuing happiness, but happiness in the form of lots of money never comes close to most people. We buy lottery tickets even if only one in millions ever wins and mostly don’t keep it long.

I am not trying to tell you that Canada was perfect in those days. It wasn’t. The people who felt most oppressed were in Quebec and they rebelled in the quiet revolution. African Canadians and First Nations began to demand equality and acknowledgment of their legal rights. People who were different asked for better treatment. There was a big argument in the country about abortion and birth control rights for women. Draft dodgers from the US came by the thousands and we had demonstrations against the US policies about Vietnam. Canada was discovering its soul.

None of the disturbances were as noticeable as the women and their sympathizers fighting for equality, especially on pay. It was legal and common to pay women half or three-quarters of what we pay men for the same work.

Canada chose a new flag and a new Prime Minister wanted to bring the Constitution home and be free from British rule. Slowly the people won some rights but also lost the spirit of community living and small business being important for the new economy.

Now we can’t find anything made in Canada and we must sell our resources for a price determined by forces outside of our country. We can’t compete in the market if our local daycare cooks their own meals. We hardly have any communities left that can be as self-sufficient as they used to be. People in our cities don’t know their neighbors.

I owe my life to technical advancement and modern development. Yet I am nostalgic about the communities we had and miss knowing who cooked the meals in the hospital, daycare, and school.

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

Lucky or Blessed?

 

Lucky or Blessed?

These days when I have time away from my cancer concerns, we visit friends who also have cancer issues and we talk. Now we talk about fires. A friend’s daughter visiting from Vancouver told us happily that the problem with fires is over. It’s not Global Warming she said. They caught the people who were starting the fires. It was interesting to hear that the authorities caught the people who were starting the fires. They must have been very special to start thousands of fires from Kelowna to the North-West Territories. On their time off, they started fires in Greece, Portugal, Hawaii, the eastern provinces, the Western States, and much more. Global Warming is being blamed also for floods in many places, but perhaps “they” will catch who is doing it soon.

I hope we will catch those guys soon since we have other problems to deal with. The African nations are rebelling against their governments. As people are losing their meager ways to survive through hard work and saving what they can, they do the only other thing they can. Trying to migrate into the more affluent parts of the world is not working, but they still have guns. Give them more time and they will purchase more modern weapons and learn how to use them. We may catch a few careless campers setting fires, but Africa has hundreds of millions of people. Those people know how to build armies, buy weapons, and attack others who accumulate wealth from their resources. Fires, floods, looming wars, and it’s more scary than cancer.

When we see the migrants looking to get in, we wish them to go back to their countries. After all, Africa and other continents are rich in many ways. Why do they not develop their own countries and take care of their people? Because their ex-colonial masters take it all telling them to be happy they have some jobs. Sounds familiar.

I remember some sixty years ago or more when those countries were fighting for independence. The colonial masters figured it would be cheaper to join the freedom fighters and rule remotely. One after the other, the leaders of independence movements mysteriously found help in the old colonial powers. France trained a presidential guard to keep a powerful family in Gabon in power for years in exchange for resource exploitation contracts. It only worked until now when Global Warming is reducing people’s ability to produce and purchase food. Now Gabon is the latest African country to rebel against their government and lock up the president.

We have a worldwide problem. The Particulates that are produced by burning things act as a blanket over the planet, keeping heat in. It’s a blanket that we can’t take off. Droughts and dryness caused by heat lead to more burning, increasing the problem. When the hot air meets cooler temperatures, it releases the collected moisture, leading to floods in places we never imagined. Governments are responding to public pressure and helping the devastated areas. None of us knows if we will not be next.

The money that we spend on fighting fires and floods is not available for regular government expenses or to help those affected by the droughts and floods, which brings food insecurity and makes people consider war as a possible solution. I end up thinking that perhaps dying from cancer will be easier than living in the world we made so hostile.

Looking through my window, I see paradise and realize that for some reason my community of the Crowsnest Pass is doing very well compared to the world I see on the various news. I go for a stroll downtown and notice how the community picked up in the last little while.

Some people believe in luck. Am I and so many others lucky to have cancer, heart problems, and other issues? Of course not. But we are here and even with governments that have been causing problems to our healthcare system over and over, we still have a great system. We have a problem with Global Warming but here the climate is moderate and even the winters are fun. Yet, how often can a person be lucky? I choose to skip the popular idea that we are lucky and change the word to “blessed.” You can be lucky only sometimes. The casino always wins, but you can be blessed all the time. It has something to do with the Universal Mind that governs the universe.

Ours is a place where there are many faiths living in harmony with each other. I am starting to consider that perhaps the Universal Mind, or God as I call it, is using us to demonstrate a point. Here there are older folks who worked underground and lived modestly. Their children built a community that is resourceful and welcoming. Others noticed it, and the natural beauty, and moved in. It is not the playground of the rich, but life here is more attractive than in the cities and their bedroom communities.

Each day I meet kind and helpful residents mixed with a steady stream of visitors who are reading the real estate boards and considering life here.

I place cancer aside and enjoy the place I am in, remembering to be grateful for the blessings. Somehow, the universe knows. I also pray for a tomorrow.

Warning from the Universe.

 

Warning from the Universe.

It was 1967. We rented a one-bedroom apartment by the Holy Cross Hospital for the four of us. Newcomers can’t afford much. Next, I went for a walk to look for a place to buy groceries. I passed by a Safeway but couldn’t figure out what they do. Looked inside and concluded that it must be a wholesaler’s place. How could there be a space this size for people to grocery shop? Two blocks away there was a small corner grocery store and to my surprise, the owner could speak Hebrew. It saved me. We had food and shelter if we could get a job that would pay before our money ran out.

There were private little food stores every few blocks, many laundromats, bakeries, and even little shops selling and fixing TVs. Unemployment wasn’t a problem. Little private businesses filled the city, paid taxes, and provided employment even for the most unskilled folks.

Two years later, we had a used car. It was a Chevy ll ($900) 1965, and we took care of it better than people today look after $50,000 vehicles. I was now a regular at the local gas station with a two-bay garage where the local guys hung out most days. There were gas stations and garages almost at every corner. Little mom-and-pop restaurants filled the rest of the space.

I loved how capitalism worked. Half of the people were self-employed and street competition kept prices low, leaving little room for small business owners to boast about their work. The others were wage workers. They mostly made lower income than those in private business but had fewer things to be concerned about. Someone else took care of pensions, health care, keeping up with inflation, and all the rest. Unions were just as concerned about the well-being of the business as the owners. We hadn’t yet grown to believe that workers were a resource to be exploited and considered employees to be our most valuable resource. When I quit one job, the big boss came out with me to convince me to stay, even though I was the vice president of the union. We all worked together.

The years went by. Slowly the lives of the workers became just a bit harder every year, as the wealth of those who “made it” ballooned out of proportion. In Europe, the cradle of our colonial civilization, the emphasis was to look after their national population, while in America, the winner took it all. No one cared about the people who were not born in the affluent part of the world. We let them in slowly, just to keep the wages of unskilled workers low.

The period between 1967 and the early two thousand is significant in one way. Humanity did advance in some respects but was overproducing to satisfy the industrial sector. Marketing ensured that we would borrow, buy, and exploit the planet without consideration of what was coming. Now the results are in. Garbage is killing nature, air, water, and all. Some of us are trying to fix the problem while others are making it worse. Both sides are not doing anything unless it gives them political points.

I believe in a universal mind that silently oversees what humans do and uses natural forces to make corrections while letting us make our own decisions. We don’t expect a rock called Earth flying in space to have a mind and take action, but it does. When we hurt it, it fights back, using us to punish ourselves.

Our scientists are all interested in what we can see and not at all in anything else. The smartest people from the past had other ideas. They believed in a universal mind that doesn’t register an image based on light and human vision. We are just now starting to investigate the possibility that invisible “things” can exist and be intelligent or able to act. Some of us even noticed that most of the universe is not an empty vacuum as we imagined, but something that has gravity which we can measure. They call it dark matter, amongst other names. It co-exists with us, but it is older and more knowledgeable than us. It has the power to mark us as a failed experiment.

We possibly took the wrong road soon after 1967 and the force is watching what we will do. Science is great, but shouldn’t replace God.

If I were that force, which I am not, I would set up to be ready for the human experiment failing but ready to assist if they change. The planet can slowly become more hostile yet able to recover from the right action from humans.

Most people never read the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament. He reluctantly warned the city of Nineveh that God would destroy them, but they repented and were saved. Could the story of Jonah in the Old Testament have a message for our generation if we are willing to learn?

If you think it is, develop your capacity for love, compassion, empathy, and higher consciousness. Give up the chase for money, power, fame, and self-importance. Take care of our world.

The art of leadership.

 

The art of leadership.

A long time ago, I applied for a promotion and received my first supervisory appointment. I was in charge of a group of people and had a mission to accomplish. The people all had their own ideas and were concerned about how to achieve their personal goals ahead of those of the employer. Mothers needed to raise their kids, students had to pass exams and so it went. I was representing the employer while the workers all needed the pay, but considered their personal needs ahead of the employer’s goals. I did not even have the most minimal training in supervising people. All I had was the example of my supervisors, who mostly failed. Supervisors in those days existed by threatening to fire people and often abuse workers if they could. My boss told me that supervisors were not in to win popularity contests. I assumed that success would mean workers achieving their needs by making the employer achieve the company’s goals.

I and other young supervisors were the first generations born after the war. Our elders were educated with army discipline while we learned new ideas about psychology, self-improvement, motivation, team building, and more. The employer sent us for a week of training in the Japanese methods of leadership. At the time, Japan was devastated by the war they lost, but came out of the ashes with glorious results. They built a new system based on loyalty. They built up industry, mostly car manufacturing, that successfully competed with the pride of the US automotive industry.

There was no conflict between labor and investors. The supervisor’s job was to provide the workers with what they needed and aim them toward the company being number one. The workers worked hard, were proud of their achievements, and involved their families in the company's future. American companies stumbled over each other to adopt the Japanese business model and workers enjoyed a good middle-class life. Employers also didn’t need to waste effort on micromanaging. The products gained a reputation for being reliable and cheap.

As often happens, the unions quit just trying to keep up with inflation, demanding to get ahead with less effort. Employers found ways around them and hired temporary part-time people who had no benefits and often not even a regular schedule of work. The consumers paid the price. Soon employers started searching for ways to get the work done with less or even no front-line staff. That is why we have automated cashiers, automated banking machines and so much more.

The attitude of prioritizing personal gain over loyalty to employers replaced the old way of thinking. This came with additional costs, resulting in reduced quality of products and services. Countries with loyalty won while industrial nations used intimidation as a business tool. The world changed.

If we aim at producing the most for the lowest cost, forced labor will be our choice. Slaves or machines can do that. The old colonial system worked well and made some people very rich. However, over time, it failed. The same is true for using natural resources irresponsibly. The natural disasters of 2023 are proof of it.

We've been producing too much for too long to benefit a few of us, but at the cost of workers and the environment, mainly the energy.

Another worthy goal could be to use what we have wisely and supply what we need, aiming at durable products while paying fairly for them. This could provide a good living for all and the workers can be our best consumers if they are paid well. It is a win-win situation, with long-lasting benefits for the world and the people. It can only work if the political will supports it.

We love games and admire winning. Unfortunately, we forget that for every winner, there must be a loser. For me to be recognized or rich, some others will have to be ignored and poor. Their resentment will grow, the world will suffer, and peace will not be possible. Our society may end up being another great civilization that disappeared from the pages of history if it has not already done so.

In my youth, I looked at life as a great possibility, with hope being the primary motivator. Now I look back and think, how can we salvage the most out of the mess we made? The red sun reminds me that life on Earth is a journey with a beginning and an end. My experience dictates that the only way is going together, covering each other’s backs.

My management textbooks aside, I focus on one line, not from a manager’s course or book. “Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.” Another line pops up in my biological computer I call the brain. Forgive us as we forgive others. I think I have what we need to save ourselves if we choose to do so. I will let this be the ending of the article about human leadership.