GLORY OF THE OPEN ROAD

LEAVING THE POND---BEEN HERE 2 WEEKS
"I leave for as good a reason as I came: I have many more lives to lead and could not spare any more time for this one." (Thoreau --on leaving Walden Pond)

On a final walk around the Pond I catch this instant when an armed citizen is gently releasing a catfish he caught.  Not a particularly rare sight in Arizona to see firearms openly worn.

Then I'm off----feels terrific to be moving again. ......"lighthearted I take to the open road----healthy, free---the world before me" ...strong and content I travel the open road" (Walt Whitman)
I really do believe movement creates meaning.

There it is sweet people---the world's largest solar plant--located 15 miles west of Gila Bend, Az. Just about ready to go on line. 4.4 square miles of solar panels etc. read all about it.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/070310_solana/worlds-largest-solar-plant-slated-gila-bend/ 

Can you see the curved mirrors that focus concentrated heat on a pipe containing a fluid salt that can withstand over 400 degrees without boiling.  Heat stores energy more efficiently than batteries so this plant can operate 24 hrs.  

With a companion, I settle in for the night just outside town along a road under construction. 

 Wanting to know more about this crossroads towns, I engage one of its 7 city Councilmen.  Meet Ray Eckerd---a very friendly--knowledgeable guy who answered all my questions with a brevity and openness rare among politicians. I asked what the ongoing issues of the town are.  It was not about water as I suspected---but about garbage---which company to deal with.  Surprisingly, water is plentiful in the area. (ground water)  This city council invites and willingly works with businesses and builders and dairymen and solar enterprises wishing to locate here. 

 Ray's wife Tammie runs the huge gift and souvenir store.

Leaving town---saw this rare group of Black Motorcyclist.

 

 

 They are the Buffalo Soldiers riding club of El Paso---en route to  San Diego.

Interviewed briefly the (apparent) leader.  He told me his group honors the real Buffalo Soldiers of 1865.  Here's the full story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Soldier 

Next day drove less than 50 miles and settled into one of my favorite boondocking spots: Jim Korsten county park.  Jim donated this lovely land to the county as a rural camping and picnic area ---specifying that it remain free of charge.

 

Called several friends in the Phoenix area and invited them out for a meal.  Great company and conversation.  The guy second from left manufactures those cute functional mini camping trailers called tear drops.  He adds a classy touch by making them of genuine hickory wood.  Check it out:

http://www.hickorynutcampers.com/ 

 

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES:  A delicious quandary sweet people--to be this free---and not knowing where to go next. The coming heat inclines me to go up---perhaps to Flagstaff or Sedona---or maybe back to the cool elevations near Springerville, Az.  But something grand is simmering in my head: Perhaps it's time to go home---a sentimental journey home to remember my boyhood in a North Louisiana sawmill town. The happenings there were remarkable and I would like to share them with you.

It's a thousand miles there and a $1000 dollars in gas to go and come back.  (no part of me wants to permanently leave the West) 

 

 

 

 

 

HAIL THESE HAPPY HOMELESS HEROES

THEY CHOSE TENT OVER RENT---HAVE ADJUSTED--- AND LEARNED TO LOVE THE SIMPLE LIFE.

Meet Gilbert and Donna---friendly acquaintances at our pondside  camp.  That's our rigs on the far side

 

 

 Every day we all walked around the pond for exercise.

Then I learned that they actually lived here behind that wall of foliage. 

 Of course I want the story so I approach their camp.

They invite me in. 

Their little dog is the love of their life.  They also feed 5 feral cats.

I tell them about this blog and ask permission to tell their story. He consults with his wife and they agree.

 

Donna shows me the details of their lifestyle.  They have lived like this for 4 years. When Gilbert lost his job they received food stamp money ---$367 a month.  Their trailer park rent was $300 which they didn't have. Donna suggested they could go live in the woods----and they did.

At first they didn't even have a tent.  Someone gave them one and slowly they acquired the equipment they now have----mostly by donation.  Donna shows me her cooking technique:  A flat stone in the middle of the fire where the skillet is put.

That's the shower back there---in a really lovely glade.

Another camper gave them the work table.

For middle of the night urges, this handy ring.

Gilbert shows off his coleman lanterns.

As we talked a friend brought them some ice.  Lasts 5 days.

I began an extensive interview.  They were amazingly open. Here's the story:

Married 24 years---he 57--she 46.  They met when he was the maintenance man in her

complex.  She was attracted to him and deliberately broke things for him to fix--till he "got the message." She became an alcoholic but got sober 20 years ago.  They tried living in a mission for awhile but had to sleep separately --they rejected that option.

Donna has medical problems which are handled by Choctaw Indian services.  They have kids who respect their choice of outdoor living and visit often--taking them shopping etc.  They eat healthy, she says---vegetables at every meal.  Both emphasized how they have come to love living this way---that the clamor of town makes them anxious to return here.  The surprising thing is that $367 is enough to sustain them--with just a bit of help from friends---taking them shopping occasionally--and moving camp when they must.  Gilbert was arrested recently for failure to pay old traffic tickets.  An understanding Judge (Stanley) reviewed the total situation and dropped all charges and fines---only directed Gilbert to go do some good deed for others.  He did---that very day--but that's another story.

 

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES:  I call them heroes because they boldly embraced a lifestyle they could afford---instead of burdening their kids or the state (in any serious way) Our society can easily furnish this amount.

THEY FOUND A LIFE---an enjoyable life in a very odd place.  They do no harm.

THEY HAVE EACH OTHER---that makes all the difference. 

I gave them a pep talk---told them that one of the great souls (Thoreau) chose to go live by a pond---told them that you (my readers) would be inspired by their story.

I gave them one of my water cans and all of my collected aluminum cans (thank you CB for inspiring me to retrieve cans  wherever I see them and recycle).

Gave them batteries for their radio and $20 for sharing their story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MEET A COWBOY WITH VISION

THIS IS MAC---A REAL COWBOY

 

And his dog--a blue heeler I think--that he has trained to turn around and lean against him for affection.

 

Twenty three years ago I was camping alone in the desert west of Yuma, Arizona.   

It was Christmas day.  This Cowboy walked up with a friendly howdy and invited me to Dinner.  Thus began an enduring friendship nurtured from time to time by assorted adventures together.

 

Mac made a good living as a farrier (horse shoeing)  bought a nice home and acreage

south of Spokane, Washington where he and his wife enjoyed many happy years.

 

I write about him because he has a rare quality of character that I much admire:  HE MAKES HIS VISIONS REAL.---With a persistence I can only envy.

 

We recently connected in Yuma and he shared his new vision---now that his wife has passed on and so has his pack of 6 mules.  In the past 2 years he has conceived an end-game vision I will share with you.  He is 82 years old--- still beanpole skinny and very fit.  

 

But first I will illustrate his vision and character via a poem I wrote about him 15 years ago.

 

Mac Cleaned up a Square Mile

Mac got it in his head to clean up a whole square mile.

You’d have to have seen it to appreciate

the audacity of his intention.

A thousand piles of trash littered this landscape,

a desolate stretch of desert west of Yuma

and east of Algodones dunes.

An informal campground for a hundred years

harbors folks escaping winter’s chill

Locals call the area Sidewinder.

It deserved its name!

Passers through in yesteryears camped here

gathering strength to cross the dunes in daylight,

thumping across the perilous wood plank road.

It was a less conscious time

and they left their trash, broken bottles,

tin cans, oil cans, filters and more.

Illegals crossing here

leave a standard grouping of trash:

inner tubes, cast off clothing, plastic bags and jugs.

One day, six years ago, my friend Mac,

a slender, spirited cowboy from the Northwest,

just got it in his head to clean up the whole darn thing.

And he began immediately, a pile at a time,

down on his knees picking up every bit of broken glass

and every piece of trash. He bagged it,

carried it to the dumpster and hurray!

One pile of trash was gone. Then two!

Then a hundred by the end of camping season.

When he returned next season he began again.

This time, a hundred and fifty piles were cleaned.

Sometimes his buddies would help

but mostly Mac worked on alone.

I have seen him scrabbling far out on the desert

in the early morning hours.

Six long winters later our desert mile was clean

and lovely in its desert way

as every landscape has its beauty

and every landscape can be marred.

I noted as the trash was disappearing

a better breed of campers came.

Dusty, angry loners went away,

I suppose in search of junked-up land

more compatible with their inner state.

The new folks build up friendly fires

well attended in the night,

hold pot luck dinners, walk together,

do favors, exchange information,

sit quietly together at sunset,

drink in tea and color from the sky

and at Christmas decorate

scrubby creosote.

No one litters now.

Our consciousness has been lifted.

Only his wife and friends know who

accomplished this transformation

without permission, prompting, pay, or praise.

I’m humbled by this awesome deed.

It’s as if a man declared

he’d drink a barrel of water

and eat a buffalo,

then did it!

A Herculean labor

that would make Paul Bunyon proud.

Step by step, Mac made his vision real

with persistence spanning years,

cleaning up a wasteland

to make the desert bloom

with hospitality.

More than a whimsical deed;

a blueprint for saving the earth.

Mac is in my hall of heros

and in the foremost ranks

because his challenge came from within.

Is it fate or accident

that his surname is McLean?

 

 

Mac's new vision is this:  He is going to sell his place build a Movable BUNKHOUSE on skids to live in .  Why a bunkhouse?  Because he lived in bunkhouses during his cowboy days and wants to re-experience that ambience.  He has a sizable collection of saddles, tack. bunks and cowboy paraphernalia to fill it with.

 

Why on skids?-----Aaah---for a very good reason:  It allows one to avoid a host of complexities such as  building permits---county oversight. (movable buildings are exempt he says)    In short he wants to go off the radar of civilization.  His many friends have agreed to haul his bunkhouse on a flatbed trailer wherever and whenever he wants a new location.  All would welcome him on their land.  I quizzed him about some details like sewer and water and power.  He's got all the bases covered----in his mind.  And given the above achievement do you doubt he will accomplish his vision? 

 

If you would like to see Mac's cleaned-up desert---exit Interstate 8 at Sidewinder rd then go south to the long term visitor area.  the desert--As far as you can see west and south of that service station was  his project.  And happily---IT IS STILL CLEAN.

BELIEVE AND BE DAMNED--PART 6: RESPONDING TO SERIOUS QUESTIONS.

Part 5 of my (faux) revival sermon attempted to show how meaning and satisfaction can be had without recourse to religion.  7 of your comments represent compelling challenges or questions that I choose to address in this separate blog:

Michael questions whether the anxieties of Death, Guilt and Meaninglessness is an adequate breakdown to account for the hundreds of forms of human suffering---like loneliness, pain, shame, defectiveness.

Answer:  Anxiety is a dis-ease of the mind and it's distinguishing characteristic is that it has no object.  It is a dread where you do not know what you are dreading.  No one can bear naked anxiety---it would kill us. (Paul Tillich) (those who've suffered deep depression have a glimpse of the anxiety of meaninglessness)  So we all attempt to morph anxiety into fear----because fear has an object---you fear something.  We can try to deal with our fears-- by dealing with the thing we fear.  Not so with anxiety.  So yes there are hundreds of human ills but they all are expressions of one of these anxieties. (I think)

Wayne ask: If after 32 years (when I wrote the speech) has my opinion changed any.
Yes---Lots.  And this speech has been revised about 10 times.

Do I still think that pursuing temporary pleasures provides any real meaning.
Answer:  Yes I do--if you define pleasures broadly----and here is where we differ Wayne.  I think EVERYTHING is temporary and fleeting. Even this earth and our sun are temporary.  Our very being is ever more temporary.  There is nothing else to do but enjoy/experience/respond to this temporary existence.  The entire cosmos is a fleeting experience. 
My hope is that you and billions of others would "Catch the drift" of the Bhagavad Gita in your spiritual pursuits. (I'll summarize it in a sentence:  The Cosmos is God--- amusing itself in a grand drama---eternity is adventuring in time---God is you---wake up-- and play the role you find yourself in with passion.)

Wayne  continues his question:  Is self centeredness and hedonism  what this world  needs more of.  Have you found anything deeper? 

Answer:  What this world needs more of is people pursuing their hearts' desires through RATIONAL SELF INTEREST.  Ayn Rand and Nietzsche both had this right.  The notion of surrendering your life's energy for pie in the sky bye and bye---or just fulfilling societal expectations--for a lifetime is a less than empowering ethic. 
I suspect that by deeper you mean the bliss, joy and creativity of being in touch with and guided by the divine.  I believe in bliss ---I think the deepest happiness is indeed inside us.  I question most seriously your notion of divine guidance.  I think you and I when we are our most effective and creative are simply being guided by OUR DEEPEST INTUITION. (call it God if you will---I don't seriously object)

George: does not think that "deserts will bloom and love will permeate the atmosphere if we will only UNBELIEVE---(and become experiencers). 

Answer:  Of course he is right about this---I was engaging in fun Puffery.  I am confident, however, that most of the current wars are clashes of religion--and would indeed stop.

George continues:  Instead of brainglow---try heartglow for awhile. 

Answer:  Also good advice---Laurie was kind enough to scan some of my answers and instruct me in non violent communication.  She makes my heart glow with her Love is my Country mission.

Anonymous:  A church without messages from God?  How is that possible?
Answer:  It's very possible---The Unitarian/Universalist have done it by shucking all those tedious and improbable doctrines and bonded together in a search for truth and values. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism

Anonymous continues:  Seeking fun is all you ever do.
Answer:  You may be right---but I tell myself that I'm seeking fulfillment through adventure and inquiry and self expression.  I am definitely at war with drudgery and I urge everyone to read the first chapter of Walden by Thoreau and see how unnecessary it is.

Mary Matzek: (a very bright involved lady--- have a look: http://otrwjam.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/women-have-to-fight/ ) asks about people who vigorously play the game of life---doing evil---like serial killers--finding meaning in mayhem.

Answer: I interviewed a genuine bank robber once who told me how incredibly exciting it was to plan and rob a bank-----seems to prove her point.  It may well be that killers and con men and Nazi's have meaningful lives ---their brains certainly glow as they do their deeds.  The Bhagavad Gita implies that evil is an integral part of the drama of life---that it is "plot thickener". That death isn't real--so no real harm is done. 
I guess she has persuaded me that there is "good glow" and   "bad glow"---that my formula for meaning creation needs a guiding ethic.  Mine is called CONSEQUENTIALISM ---it matters what the consequences of our games are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequentialism

Steven: asks if  billions of separate egos pursuing their personal satisfaction---playing Ayn Rand's game with RATIONAL SELF INTEREST will lead to a more loving, joyful, environmentally sustainable world or end wars.

Answer:  I think it will---eventually---in the same way as the "invisible hand" of self interest can make economic markets work.  It is masses of people somehow persuaded to surrender and sacrifice their life energies (usually in the name of religion) for the good of others----that has retarded our progress toward fairness and sustainability.
Thoreau marveled that so many people could be found to build the pyramids as a tomb for a booby.  He would have like to have known people who "were beyond such trifling."

Ron (a very creative friend)  makes an interesting point:  The thrill of pure experience can be diminished by thinking (or judging/analyzing).

Answer:  I think that the ability to experience life is a personal art form---never perfected---and slightly different for all of us. Two people on a Disneyland ride might well focus on different things:  one on the thrill of motion---the other on the mechanics of the ride.  Both could enjoy the ride.

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES:  Thanks to the Yuma Unitarians for the opportunity to revise my speech once again and enjoy ranting against belief and for unbelief and creative responsiveness to life.  Thanks to my readers for challenging me----I've received a good dose of meaning ---my head glowed a bit---maybe even my heart.

The Real Story Behind Google’s Street View Program

This morning Google signed a consent decree with the US Federal Trade Commission to avoid a lawsuit over privacy concerns caused by Google’s Street View program, which covertly collected electronic data including the location of unsecured WiFi access points and the contents of users’ web access logs. As part of the settlement, the FTC released a huge collection of sworn depositions that were taken from Google employees during its investigation. I’ve been wading through the depositions, and they give tantalizing hints of a deeper data collection plan by Google. Here’s what I found...

–We shouldn’t be surprised that there was an Android angle to the data collection. Most smartphones contain motion sensors, which when tuned to eliminate background noise can detect the pulse of the user. That was being combined with the phone's location and time data, and automatically reported to a centralized Google server.

Using this data, Google could map the excitement of crowds of people at any place and time. This was intended for use in an automated competitor to Yelp. By measuring biometric arousal of people at various locations, Google could automatically identify the most interesting restaurants, movies, and sporting events worldwide. The system was put into secret testing in Kansas City, but problems arose when it had trouble differentiating between the causes of arousal in crowds. This resulted in several unfortunate incidents in which the Google system routed adventurous diners into 24-hour fitness gyms and knife fights at biker bars. According to the papers I saw, Google is now planning to kill the project, a process that will involve announcing it worldwide with a big wave of publicity and then terminating it nine months later.

–Tech Crunch reported about six months ago that Google was renting time on NASA’s network of earth-observation satellites. This was assumed to be a way to increase the accuracy of Google Maps. What wasn’t reported at the time was that Google was also renting time on the National Security Agency’s high resolution photography satellites, the ones that can read a newspaper from low Earth orbit. Apparently the NSA needed money from Google to overcome the federal sequester, and Google wanted a boost for Google+ in its endless battle with Facebook.

Google’s apparent plan was to automate the drudgery of creating status posts for Google+ users. Instead of using your cameraphone to photograph your lunch or something cute you saw on the street, Google would track your smartphone’s location and use the spy satellites to automatically capture and post photographs of any plate-shaped object in front of you, and any dog, cat, or squirrel that passed within ten feet of you. An additional feature would enable your friends to automatically reply “looks yummy” or “awww so cute.” (An advanced option would also insert random comments about Taylor Swift.) Google estimated that automating these functions would add an extra hour and 23 minutes to the average user’s work day, increasing world GDP by three points if everyone switched from Facebook to Google+.

–The other big news to me was the project’s tie-in to Google Glass, the company’s intelligent glasses. Glass doesn’t just monitor everything the user looks at and says; a sensor in Glass also measures pupil dilation, which can be correlated to determine the user’s emotional response to everything around them. This has obvious value to advertisers, who can automatically track brand affinity and reactions to advertisements. What isn’t widely known is that Glass can also feed ideas and emotions into the user’s brain. By carefully modulating the signals from Glass’s wireless transceiver, Google can directly stimulate targeted parts of the brainstem. This can be used to, for example, make you feel a wave of love when you see a Buick, or to feel a wave of nausea when you look at the wrong brand of beer.

This can sometimes cause cognitive problems. For example, during early tests Google found that force-fitting the concepts of “love” and “Buick” caused potentially fatal neurological damage to people under age 40. The papers said Google was working on age filters to overcome this problem.

Although today’s Glass products can only crudely affect emotions, the depositions gave vague hints that Google plans to upgrade the interface to enable full two-way communication with the minds of Glass users. (This explains Google's acquisition of the startup Spitr in 2010, which had been puzzling me.) The Glass-based thought transfer system could enable people to telepathically control Google’s planned fleet of moon-exploring robots. It may also be used to incorporate Glass users into the Singularity overmind when it emerges from Google’s server farms, which is apparently scheduled for sometime in March of 2017.

Posted April 1, 2013

The ghosts of April Firsts past: 
2012: Twitter at Gettysburg
2011:  The microwave hairdryer, and four other colossal tech failures you've never heard of
2010:  The Yahoo-New York Times merger
2009:  The US government's tech industry bailout
2008:  Survey: 27% of early iPhone adopters wear it attached to a body piercing
2007:  Twitter + telepathy = Spitr, the ultimate social network
2006:  Google buys Sprint

BELIEVE AND BE DAMNED --- PART 5

OMELET TIME---I've broken enough eggs---time to make an omelet.

Let's remind ourselves of the problem and suggest a better solution: Every human is beset with three anxieties: DEATH---GUILT---MEANINGLESSNESS.

They mix and mingle in complex ways and taken together, constitute the challenge of life.

Religion attempts to deal with them---offering myths, doctrines, Holy books, commandments, arcane rituals and ethical systems. 

What do we non believers offer? 

Glad you asked?  This is the major challenge to Unitarian Universalist;  the only church that doesn't claim to have a message from God----the only church that can generate meaning without metaphysics.

We deal with the anxiety of death by facing it as courageously as we can----reminding ourselves of Buddha's words:  Life is like getting on board a ship that sails out into the ocean----and SINKS.     THE TRICK IS TO ENJOY THE VOYAGE!

Another parable attributed to Buddha makes the point even stronger:  A man being chased by a tiger falls over a cliff but manages to grab hold of a vine, and he's just hanging there.  Before he falls to his death he notices that a strawberry is growing out of the side of the cliff.  And so, holding on with one hand, he plucks the strawberry, puts it in his mouth, eats it and enjoys it.  ENJOYS IT!  WE ARE ALL HANGING----AND THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO BUT ENJOY THE STRAWBERRIES!!

(APPLAUSE........AMENS)

What an intelligent society does about  the problem of death---is to use brainpower and technology to extend our vigorous lifetimes.  We are making progress;  And I for one think we will continue till eventually we can extend our lives indefinitely.
GUILT
Unbelievers aren't troubled much by Guilt----hardly a fraction of what troubles believers--- because we don't accept that God---if he exist---has said anything about ethics----especially not sexual ethics.  Advanced societies are rapidly abandoning unreasonable commandments---creating  new---more enlightened--more pleasurable
notions of appropriate behavior.  (America lags behind the new understandings---The president of France OPENLY has a wife and a mistress--hardly creates a ripple over there---I wonder if the wife has a lover)

MEANINGLESSNESS

BUT HOW DO WE GENERATE MEANING?  ----without believing in religion?

I say we unbelievers can generate meaning by playing the game of life with intention and intelligence.

What is meaning?   It's a feeling---of aliveness---purposefulness and connection that exist between the beginning and end of an intention.  Some philosophers call this sequence of events a GAME, A project or a gestalt.  I like to call it a game because we all understand the phrase "the game of life".

Looked at carefully we can see that the essence of a game is that one thing is declared to be important than another.  WHAT IS NOT---is declared to be more important than WHAT IS.  This morning all of you played the church game.  You declared that being here was more important than whatever else you could have done.  Soon this game will be over and you might play the lunch game.  Life is a series of games---large, small and overlapping, where we are moving from what is to what is not.

 It's obvious to us that what is not ----is--- ultimately--not more important than what is---BUT WE DECLARE AND PRETEND THAT IT IS SO THAT WE CAN GET MOVEMENT IN OUR LIVES. The point of all games is to give motion to our lives.(The movement I'm talking about is not just physical motion----reading, thinking or even meditation is a kind of motion---intentional progression from a beginning to an end.)

So the challenge of meaning is the challenge of motion.  We play the game of life by selecting one of our fascinations--- activating intentionality---to get ourselves moving through experience-(making "waves" in the process)-to (hopefully) generate meaning. (a feeling of aliveness) It is awesomely democratic that (by this analysis)  anyone anywhere at any time can generate meaning. ( a feeling of aliveness.) (we generate a small flicker of meaning by scratching an itch)

Only movement can generate meaning,  And here's a couple of things I betcha never thought of : First:  AS YOU MOVE FROM WHAT IS TO WHAT IS NOT----YOU MAKE WAVES-----affect things and people.  WAVES ARE OUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD. (waves are our effortless, natural contribution to the world)
                   Second:" ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO DO WAS CONTRIBUTE."
(Erhard)

It is benevolent irony that actively playing the game of life-- to amuse and fulfill ourselves is the best way to contribute to the world.  Ayn Rand got it right in her book "The Virtue of Selfishness".  Thoreau in living his life selfishly for himself inspired millions to follow their dreams..

Say---are y'all falling asleep on me?

(Audience Noooo---Amen)

Sweet people:  I'm saying that movement is more important than location.  Acquiring is more fun than possessing---getting rich than being rich.

Imagine that your head is a light bulb---your brain is the filament---experience is electricity.  As experience moves through you---you light up!  I say that meaning is Glow.  Sometimes we glow brightly---sometimes dimly--depending on how artfully we move through experience.

To be brilliantly lit is what we all want.  How do you know when you are lit up---alive and on purpose?  WHEN WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS SO INTERESTING THAT YOU LOSE TRACK OF TIME.  Psychologist have given a name to this feeling---FLOW. 

Here is the best short summary I know for a meaningful life:
     1. Respond to your fascinations, (some things fascinate you--some don't)
     2. Wake up your creativity. (creativity is concept transfer)
     3. Share yourself---somehow--with others. (Brian Swimm)

Gimme an Amen folks--I'm almost home.

(Audience Amen)

I want to make crystal clear the difference between a believer and those playing the game of life courageously.

A believer obeys----a game player plays.

A believer yearns for destination---a game player enjoys the going.

A believer's goal is salvation; a game player's goal is aliveness.

A believer wants to be "right"; a game player wants to be satisfied.

A believer lies about the uncertainties of life---A game player accepts the uncertainties.

A believer thinks he standing on a solid rock of doctrine---a game player knows he's on a rolling ball. (the earth)

A believer thinks he can't live without an infallible guide---A game player knows there is no infallible guide.

A believer seeks to do what is "right" A game player to do what is appropriate.

My fellow earthlings.  Are we clear about the difference between a believer and a game player? ( an experiencer)  If so say Amen.

(Audience Amen)

When enough people move beyond beliefs to experience---the world will be transformed.  Wars will end.  People will stop persecuting and dominating others because being satisfied will be more important than being right.

DESERTS WILL BLOOM AND LOVE WILL PERMEATE THE ATMOSPHERE.
PEOPLE WILL SEEK TO BECOME--NOT DIVINE-- BUT FULLY HUMAN.

All this can be ours if we will only UNBELIEVE.

(prolonged applause and cheering)

(copyright 1981 by Randall Vining)

BELIEVE AND BE DAMNED PART 4

WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE----STUFF!

Now I ask you---why are so many people believing so much stuff?

People swallow religious beliefs largely because they are indoctrinated by their parents and culture.  Humans worldwide create then swallow religious beliefs for the same reasons they currently swallow tranquilizers-----TO MAKE ANXIETY GO AWAY.

Only humans, it seems, suffer anxiety, probably because our big brains became aware of our mortality.  Only we---know we will die.  Anxiety is uneasiness without an object.  It's different from fear---which has an object.

Anxiety comes in three forms: The anxieties of death, guilt and meaninglessness.  All of us feel all three of them at some level of our being.

The anxiety of death is the dread of extinction.

The anxiety of guilt is the knowledge we all live with--that there is a gap between what we are and what we could be.

The anxiety of meaninglessness is the need we all feel for something---around which to orient our lives---in terms of which to understand ourselves---and to which to give our energies.

What religion, nearly all religion is about is artificially easing these anxieties.  Are you listening to me?

(audience: Yeah)
(Voice: but we're not believing)
(laughter)

For the anxiety of death,  religious leaders prescribe a belief pill.  They want you to believe there is an afterlife.  They preach heaven and hell as a certainty.

For the anxiety of guilt they prescribe pills of repentance, atonement and salvation by faith.  The tragedy of believing their redemptive hogwash is that it distracts us from experiencing our way through our feelings of guilt.

And for the anxiety of meaninglessness---they also have a pill.  It's called the Christian Ethic, The Islamic, Judaic, Marxist ethic etc---all of which are codes of conduct extrapolated from doctrines and designed to tell you how God wants you to run your life.

Swallow these pills---they are saying and you won't feel the anxiety of death, guilt or meaninglessness.  The truth is, if you swallow their pills you won't feel much of anything.

(Audience: Amen)

Do you know what  religious pills are called?  DOGMADRINE.

(Audience: Laughter)

Religion IS an answer to the stresses of life---A BAD ANSWER.  It is artificial, temporary, destructive and damned expensive.  We have a world full of religious junkies afraid to get on the roller coaster of life without their belief pills---their tranquilizers against anxiety.

My message today is that belief is DUMB!  Believing is an inappropriate response to the challenge of these fundamental anxieties. Let's all say it again: BELIEVING INTEFERES WITH EXPERIENCING.

Oh brothers and sisters don't you go filtering the living waters of life through some polluting belief system!  Drink straight and raw, right out of the stream of your own experience!

Do I hear some trembling soul saying: "But is it safe to drink that way?" No it's not safe----it's stimulating!  And how does the water taste?  Well------ it taste--- the way it taste.
(Murmurs)

Now I ask you:  what have you been drinking?  My bet is that you've got a bottle of that old religious rotgut hidden somewhere and when times get tough, I bet you slip out back and take a nip!

(laughter)

Religion's as hard to get rid of as a stray cat.  Throw it out the front door and it comes sneaking in the back.  I betcha we've got people in this audience who read the astrology section of the newspaper.

(Murmurs )

Uh-uh!  Now you think I've quit preaching and gone to meddling!

(laughter)

And now, for the benefit of the forgetful---I will tell you what I have told you:

Believers are liars when they claim to know what they don't know at all.

Believers are cowards when they won't face up to the insecurities of life.

Believers are tyrants when they impose their beliefs on their children.

Believers are gamblers when they bet their whole lives on some unprovable system.

Believers are idolaters when they elevate something that is finite to the status of infinite.  To believe that the Bible or the Koran or any of the other 27 major "Holy Books" is the word of God is idolatry.

Believers are insane when their beliefs cause them to respond inappropriately to life!

(Can I get an Amen?--Audience Amen)

Friends, lest we go away with hostility in our hearts, let's hurry up to say that we love the believers and deplore the damage believing does.

And lest we go away with smugness---let's all acknowledge  that we're all guilty of believing.  None of us have entirely rid ourselves of rigid notions.

I still say, however, that it is as inappropriate for grown up people to be believing doctrines as it is for 30 year olds to be talking baby talk.

I know what you're thinking about now:  Enough already with breaking eggs---Make us an omelet.  I hear you!  OK here goes:

TOMORROW I WILL MAKE AN OMELET.