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

Seniors fighting for their lives.[

 

Seniors fighting for their lives.[

Nights of White Satin.

It was 1968, and I was driving the old Chevy Nova from Pincher Creek towards the mountains. On the radio, a song, “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues was playing. I was making the biggest decision in my young life. In a while, I would turn 18 and could leave Canada without my parents and go back to Israel. I had friends there, did the tests to get into the Air Force, and economically would have been ahead. My $1.25 an hour here was not hard to beat.

It was evening time and I could see the mountains getting closer, under a full moon. The beauty was overwhelming. My first Christmas in Canada was amazing. A family I didn’t know invited my dad and I to celebrate with them. The Prime Minister of Canada was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. So beautiful, kind, and well-meaning people and, in my future, there was a Canadian girl I was to spend the next fifty years with and I stayed. I never went back, even for a holiday. Canada was my country and Alberta was my province.

Shortly after Canada started Universal Health Care, I was able to go to University at minimal cost and I had religious freedom that was not available in Israel. I had lots of struggles but no regrets until 52 years later in the unforgettable year of 2020. I studied and worked as hard as I could for my place in the new world. To me, the beauty of the place and the people was most important until I heard an American politician say, “It’s the economy stupid.” I am still not fully convinced, but things have changed since 68.

The oil-based economy attracted new people to the province. The good-hearted kind peace-loving hard-working mostly rural people of Alberta became a minority in their own home. New people arrived with intentions of making a quick buck and leaving. Investors came to rip profits and not even stay in the province. They wanted all our services but didn’t care to invest in the future of a province that they just wanted to use. Some only wanted us to propel them into political careers or gain job experience and go home. Home for many of them wasn’t here.

My wife and I paid our dues, worked our hours, and saved for retirement, intending to spend it locally.  Being “snowbirds” never was a choice. Contributing work and treasure to the community was always a budgeted item. We missed the actual point in which Alberta changed.

Just like millions of others, I was disturbed by the steady rise in the gap between the rich and the poor. It didn’t look sustainable. At the same time, I became very aware of how the rising inequality steadily contributed to a rise in conditions endangering the wellbeing of humankind upon our planet.

A sickness came over the land at a time when the economy was overdue for one of its cyclical crashes, particularly damaging for Alberta’s oil-based economy. As often predicted, the oil economy was temporary. Some here tried hard to extract money from our oil, but the world changed. Now the vultures are fighting for what is left. It served to highlight what is the nature of us, the people.

The pandemic disproportionally ravaged the old people like me. Being an old-time Albertan, I expected a united effort to save our lives, but the opposite happened. In July dozens of people began public demonstrations against the most effective way to save our lives, wearing masks. An acquaintance told me, against all evidence, that I can wear a mask, but he is not going to and all will be OK. He backed his idea up with some conspiracy theory cooked up by his money-hungry political organization. Others were commenting on social media that we should be happy to give up our lives for the economy. They were fighting for what they think is “freedom.”

I expected my government to be the voice of reason. The Premier came on with a story about a small business owner begging that her business will not be destroyed. He didn’t say that the government will help and we will all fight together; he sacrificed us, the most vulnerable. No lockdown and no help to those economically affected. No enforcement of wearing masks either. This is the guy who a year ago told Rex Murphy that he wants the Federal government to fight environmentalists in the woods to allow pipelines on their lands. Freedom to risk my life is not as important as the freedom to make money on selling oil to China while providing a few temporary jobs.

What makes sense to me is, we all take action to face the threat. We must use our savings from the good times and borrow if necessary. When the danger passes, we will all start paying back, starting with those who can afford the most and going down. Canada overall is doing it, and now the rest should join in. If we save our small businesses, who mostly volunteer to help, we will soon have a robust economy again.

I don’t feel comfortable complaining a lot. I never expected the world to be perfect. Some seniors are talking about fighting for their lives. I don’t. We would destroy what we worked hard to build. We care about people, even those who fight for their freedom at the risk of our lives. We care about future generations that will happen far after we are gone. Yet, we are not the “do nothing” generation.

We are leaving a much better world to new generations than that which we received. The biggest problem for most is to have enough work. There is an abundance of food and all else if distributed equally. Now please consider letting us live the rest of our lives in peace, enjoying what we have worked and paid for.

A government is not a charity, it is insurance for all the citizens.

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

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 [AMP1]

God’s law or natural order.

 

God’s law or natural order.

Here in Canada the year is divided into two parts and people have no choice but to adjust. We can escape the winters by travelling to a warmer place, but the plan is unsustainable for most folks. Even if we could all fly to warmer places and have winter homes, the world would change because of the garbage we spew out of the exhaust pipes doing it. It’s winter than summer and we must learn how to live with it. The world is perfectly designed and built to sustain us and all that we need. Most human bodies also are made to survive and thrive on this earth.

When you get old, if you will, you can’t remember when things happened. Life is divided into sections between life-changing events. 1945 the war was finished. Around 2000, the twin towers were destroyed in New York, and in 2020 a noticeable pandemic killed many people and caused havoc with the economy. Inadvertently the conditions exposed significant problems and forced humans to reevaluate how we treat each other and the planet. It’s amazing that it happened just at the right time. Is there a mind of the universe causing events? (God?)

We assume that all of nature is built like us and around us. Not long ago we were sure that the universe circled around the earth and that humans were the central figures in creation. Now people believe that all things just happen by chance and miraculously sustain our species. I have no problem with that. Only my theory assumes that we have a prominent role in determining what happens. It is not our brains that cause the future to happen; it is our understanding. We have the gift of life to learn and what we learn determines the future of our universe.

When I say “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” I assume that my will is influencing Him. Otherwise, why would He tell me to pray? Why did the Son of God say that what belongs to the Father belongs to Him and through Him to us? There are many more examples.

I am not convinced that the brain is the mind, and the mind is the soul. Frankly, I am sure it is not. I watched a murmuration (flock) of starlings perform an aerial show. I saw a school of fish doing underwater acrobatics and studied Leaf-Cutter ants build complex social orders and hives that dwarf our cities from a hundred years ago in complexity. Try to follow the biological formations, trees and even grasses, noticing the order that keeps them alive. We are not even touching what is outside of the earth in this article or the microscopic dimensions that we are made of. The universal mind or even my subconscious mind is by far more advanced than our present-day technology. We can influence the universe and our own existence with something that we crudely named “faith” or “belief.”

It is wonderful that the human-animal advanced so far ahead of all other life forms on this planet. For thousands of years, we expressed knowledge that we, through prayers, magic, meditation, and other tools of faith, have influenced the way things are. Could we be completely wrong? If we are I am sure we would have found out by now.

Unlike animals and plants, we have a problem that we can’t solve. As the story goes, people got close to challenging God for dominance over creation when they tried to build the tower of Babel. It’s just a story, but is there a grain of truth in it. Ask any good liar and he will tell you that the best lies have some truth in them. Our problem is that we fight against ourselves. In the tower of Babel story, people were split up to speak many languages; perhaps formed into various races.

When the collaboration was destroyed humans were no longer a threat to the universal mind and went to spend the next few thousands of years learning what they/we should have figured out long ago. Selfishness and competition can propel us to greater effort, but we will slow each other down. If we want to go forward, we must do it like the starlings who by all flying together aware of each other create an impossible formation.

That is achieved in nature by forming little groups, often seven individuals, co-ordinating the groups into larger groups, dividing the goals amongst many, and so on. It can’t be achieved by one group dominating the others. It is an expression of the Universal mind through collaborative action.

Now when I see nature forcing us to work in “bubbles” “cohorts” and so on, I am reminded of the natural order. I see us being forced to wear protective devices to protect others. It is becoming very obvious which people make efforts to help others and which don’t care. I see governments leading their people to help each other and reopening their economies safely (like New Zealand) while others do the opposite and suffer the consequences. (Like the USA.)

We don’t know how many species similar to ours have formed civilizations that lived, died, and disappeared in the vast universe. We know of some in the human past. Now we are facing a crossroad which demands attention with possible lethal consequence.

All I can do is advocate for the direction which makes the most sense to me, and I do. It is not the most popular direction where I live, but I am not here to win a popularity contest. The two-thousand-year-old solution I am proposing is not my own either. Do on to others as you would like them to do to you. The “others” are our offsprings, many not yet born. Yes, work harder now to save the unborn. Sounds familiar?

Happy Thanks Giving to our American friends.

How to break a contract.

 

How to break a contract.

If we take a newborn baby and leave it outside, it will die. It’s a complete human being; it can’t survive on its own. We are born into a contract with our society. The first part of life we spend on growing and learning how to be human. We accumulate information and physical strength and go on to learn how to be useful. In most cases, the parents raise us, and society steps in to help.

When we are mature enough they train us to do our share, pair up and reproduce, giving some time to bring up the young. Another obligation is to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. The sick, handicapped, and most importantly the old, often aging parents. This is the social contract. It is like a cheese sandwich. You must eat the bread on both sides to enjoy the cheese between them.

If we break the contract, it is the end. People will not have a reason to have and raise children, will not trust that they will be taken care of, and try to take care of themselves. A few will succeed, but there will not be enough abled bodies to take care of the rest. The social order will collapse. Some people will use others to care for them, but those others will not be blind to what faith awaits them. They are human also and will use all of their abilities to change an unfair contract. For every action, there is an equal reaction. When there is no other option there is war.

History is full of examples where some people tried to break the contract and failed. When Hitler began thinking about saving money by ridding Germany of unproductive people, he took some small steps over a long time. The education system was slowly changed, a propaganda machine was developed, and unwanted people were demonized and blamed for things they could do nothing about.

Slowly the unwanted were removed from highly visible positions and described as cheater, losers, stealers, and subhumans. Handicapped people were killed “mercifully” and their deaths were assigned medical names. Even soldiers maimed in the battle of Stalingrad were euthanized and the telegrams to families stated their brave sacrifice, (I was told.)

Here I have been observing a slow movement towards making life more difficult for the labour force for years. The quality of healthcare is diminishing (Not the service) and there is a push towards a two-tier system. Soon expensive modern treatment will not be available for the common people who can’t afford it.

Education is dwindling and becoming less effective for those who can’t afford private schools. Higher education is now out of reach for many, while the institution that provides it is filled up with higher-paying foreign students. It is obvious that we have moved towards “efficiency” meaning saving money, instead of investing our tax dollars in our needs. The saved money is not showing up to support the growing need for helping the elderly, who lately are severely under attack by COVID-19.

Instead, there are conspiracy theories circulating telling people that the present pandemic is a hoax propagated by drug companies and others. They claim, amongst other things, that the medical profession is blaming the pandemic for unrelated deaths which would normally occur, anyway. Those are of questionable quality and meant to confuse the less intellectual crowd.

Presently Canada spends a third less than other western nations on senior care per capita. We also have Health Care, which doesn’t supply needed medications and related services. Our population is forced to use the most expensive polluting transportation option, namely private vehicles. If we try to fix the problems, we are told that we can leave. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The kids who can’t afford good daycares or schools are the future. The patients waiting while getting sicker to get care are the workforce, often those who feed and take care of us. We built the care homes, private and government-run and we pay a lot more than what we get to keep them open. The people in them, miners, farmers, teachers, mothers, and grandmothers are those who raised us trusting that they would be cared for when they get close to the end.

Now they are packed like sardines, have only half of the care time that a senior gets, let’s say in Germany, and left to die alone in filth if there is a pandemic. The homes are not regulated and inspected properly, and our leaders are working day and night to reduce what is spent on them. The hospitals are earmarked for the same “to reduce taxes” but not for you and me. My taxes only go up either directly or by the government squeezing municipalities and schools to the bone.

I was told by a medical practitioner that patients in long-term care facilities are often left to die, even if they want to live. We don’t let people have abortions or commit suicide, but we let people die if they are old and catch a virus because we failed to take steps to avoid it. Humm… I wonder.

On remembrance day we say, “those who gave their lives” and so on. I have seen wars and knew people who lost their friends. I can tell you that in most cases people sacrifice for the social contract they have with those around them. That is the human way.

Some people are brainwashed to think the economy is all that matters, but they are wrong. The economy is what we hire the government to look after, without breaking the more important social contract. If we break that and lose our humanity, we are doomed.

Thank God that women and young people are taking on leadership positions. Perhaps they will do what the men failed to do and save the human species. There is more to life than profiting from other’s existence.

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

The Don is gone.

 

The Don is gone.

Through my window, I watched the Turtle Mountain. Slowly little snowflakes started their way down towards the yet green lawn until all was a blur. Slowly turning my gaze to the computer, I noticed breaking news. For the last few days, people in the US were counting ballots and nothing changed. They were stuck at the same numbers of electoral college votes. The President raged that they should stop the counting where he was losing and count harder where he expected to win. If he didn’t win, he said, the election would be viewed as stolen from him. First, he said that he won and as more votes were counted his win, like the mountain, became blurry.

Now four days later a new president is elected. The country and the world are celebrating. I must admit that I wasn’t expecting a worldwide celebration. Surfing through websites, I realized that this may be one of the occasions when the earth exhibits a measurable increase in human happiness. Some scientists measure this kind of phenomenon. How can one man scare so many people for so long? As the US president, he can destroy the world.

I go back a few years to explain my feelings. I remember a reality show named “The Apprentice.” I never watched it, but I remember the host who later became president going through a room full of people saying to some “you are fired.” At the time I wondered if the rich b----- knew what it meant for people to lose their livelihood, but it was just a show. Later I learned a lot more about that person, how he abused women, fired his friends, cheated on his taxes and so much more. Here was a master who could play on people’s evil, selfish emotions, fears, and hate better than anyone.

Evil people from history look like characters from stories, and we expect them to lose by the end. I met many of their victims. This guy looked as if there will be no end to his story. In a short time, he changed the greatest country and the world to his benefit and made people forget what we used to know as morals, values, and honour.

I remember him treating people like garbage, threatening with violence, calling his ex-girlfriends ugly, pushing heads of states out of his way, and so much more. It puzzled me how come he is not concerned with the next election, but he wasn’t. He was bred and raised to lie, bribe, and cheat so convincingly that he always got away with it according to his niece Mary Trump.

The statement I remember most profoundly was “I love the uneducated.” Why would he say that? Looking back now, I understand. Most people are uneducated, and their labour provides the worst liars with power and wealth. They are defenseless, but believe that they are smart. Consequently, those who are not ashamed to take advantage of them do. The uneducated and simple-minded try to please those who exploit them expecting some payback. There is only payback while they can still be used, but they don’t know it.

God, the universe, or Karma as others call him, is never short of ways to destroy our world. A large solar storm, a big volcanic eruption, a meteor, or a tiny virus can do the job. It looks like all of those things happened before. We live by the grace of God under his protection. All of what we know can be gone and a new world can begin again without us. All that we consider beautiful can be gone very fast and something else can take its place. So why are we still here? Why is one evil man able to destroy us?

The ancient writers of our most revered texts pondered that question and came up with conclusions. We are sons and daughters of God, the creator, but can only destroy ourselves slowly. It takes time to build superweapons or use up the atmosphere of the earth. There is time for humans to consider what they do, time for what the bible calls repentance.

We are presently at one of those stages when we must make critical choices, and we just did. It seems like we bought more time to consider what we are doing. New Arms Control treaties will be negotiated, we may change our main energy supply sources and perhaps avoid the destruction that an unknown virus can unleash upon us. I remember a famous line that said, “We live to fight another day.”

Another winter is coming and I expect it to be a long one. People will make a choice if to be alone, untouched, or risk sickness and death. By now, most conspiracy theory believers can see for themselves that there is a real danger even in a mild pandemic such as COVID-19.

People who make a living from oil are witnessing proof that humans are able to change the weather and don’t have many years for a smooth transition to other energy sources. Those who wish to save money on the poor and give it to the rich are waking up to a new reality. The poor seem to have an ally above our immediate reality.

I have been living in the best country in the world and have many more benefits than I ever expected, so I can’t complain. However, there are billions of people who could be much better if selfishness, lying and cheating were better managed. The US latest elections give me hope.

God is not destroying us, only giving us warnings and time to mend our ways. If we win, we will eventually be in his true image. If we lose, well, he will let us hang ourselves. The first step is to get rid of liars and demonstrate love and sharing. After that, the lines get blurry like the contours of Turtle Mountain in a snowfall. We can’t cheat on his tests.

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