What Would Socrates Say About Christmas?

ell,
I certainly ate too much at Thanksgiving...and I'm still enjoying the left overs...there was no meat on the table, but we had tons of carbs and several sweets so that was more than enough! I find myself in a slump...unmotivated, uninspired and, blah-the holidays for me kicks off the season to question lots of old habits and traditions that I'm not so sure are relevant anymore in my life, and I have to also question were these traditions ever relevant? 


Traditions are a great thing for families and a wonderful way to keep balance in our lives but I also think sometimes we need to examine these traditions just to see if they make sense! Socrates said "a life unexamined is not worth living," of course I'm not forgetting what happened to Socrates (recent documentary on PBS brought this back into the front of my mind) So today I examine, ask questions, find answers,  and ponder possible resolutions.


(I have to digress here for a moment when looking into origins of anything I think of Henrik, an online friend living in Denmark.  He knew perfect English and that was a good thing & he proceeded to teach me a few words in Dansk and we explored word origins together doing research, and it was totally fascinating!!  I know it's not your typical boy meets girl online relationship, I am drawn to certain ones who have something to teach me)

So with that said, where does the word Testify come from? You stand before a court to give testimony, your testimony is sworn now on a Bible, the word of God...but where did that begin?  Found this out while watching that same documentary on Socrates and the Early Democracy of Greece- and even though I did research checking for proof to support this idea, some articles disagreed with this origin & yet the explanation they gave was too vague for me, this one however does make sense!! So my research said when one came to speak to Gods of ancient Greece men had to place their hand over their testicles--thus they stood in testis, maybe this could be the true origins...But on this documentary they said when ancient Grecians came to speak to the Gods they had to bring along a sacrifice--(this made more sense to me, since sacrifice was the Cell Phone of that Century, and being done in 300 BC....so they would kill an animal and cut off the testicles and hold the bloody testis up to appease the Gods while they asked for Grace to be bestowed upon them, they gave TESTIS to the Gods thus came the word Testify--

Women of that time had no power in government or Religious doctrine... so they never had to grab or clutch their crotch, but they performed rituals a plenty of their own... such as killing & burying an entire litter of piglets and then digging the carcases up and ....[OH Ill save that one for another day].......today I'm exploring or examining this:


Why do I celebrate Christmas? What is the ORIGIN OF IT?  I am not of a religious nature--have never been baptised into any religion, I never thythe and as a child growing up we didn't have Christmas in our home!! The whole notion of creation was never explained to me in any form...IN fact I recall only one time in my childhood when toys were presented to my sisters and me...other than that maybe a bowl of walnuts sat on the table or a random card sent in by well wishers would arrive and be stood up on the table, then discarded to the trash a few days later.

So why do we, [my family] have Christmas now? I had to examine this and after a recent talk with my Mother who finally admitted to me she has a strong dislike of Christmas and always has...I searched my memory banks for the reasons behind the celebrating of Christmas for [US]


Well honestly I began celebrating Christmas when I met the man I married and later we had a son...like all parents I wanted my child to have everything I didn't have and that included Christmas! We told him the story of Santa on the roof, we chopped a live tree and brought it into my spotless living room, I baked cakes and hung stockings, I set up nutcrackers and felt covered reindeer!  WHY?

I learned all the traditions of Christmas outside my upbringing. At school I was in the art department from 6th grade on up...art was the main focus of my life [that and riding horses]! So it was that in art class I loved creating the red-construction paper chains and drawing donkeys and camels on the murals to be used as backgrounds for the Christmas pageant of Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus.  The plaster of paris ornaments we shaped by hand along with the homemade torn-paper mache dolls, were so COOL.  For me it was FUN and it was a time to be creative and to do things that otherwise I wouldn't get the opportunity to do!! It made me feel Good to be part of a group of creative people!

So it was that I got to know the event we call Christmas.  I learned of course that is was a religious holiday celebrated by Christians and that was ok, my Mother and sisters said they were Christians although the sisters were at that time Jehovah's witnesses, all 3 of them had been baptised, but I held firm to my non belief system.

I also learned the celebration we call Christmas originated as a Pagan festival in honor of the Goddess of Nature first held in Babylon!  It was a gluttony of excesses-- partying, food, drink, and gift giving...and was done each Dec. 25th. 

In the year 350, The Pope Julius  decided to use this celebration as a means of converting the Pagan Romans to Christianity by continuing this raucous celebration...and the day of choice was Dec 25th...but scholars say the birthday of the man named Jesus...they think...is the same as my Birthday..Sept 29th!


To top it all off there was the music, I have always loved music and it was me who spent many a night listening to the little radio that Big Sis got with the saved Greenback stamps....that same Christmas music ringed through the halls of the old buildings that housed our elementary, jr, and high schools. In those days our schools were with-in 3 blocks proximity to each other. So I learned the songs and sang along from Silent Night to Rudolf.


I recall playing the triangle in the little chorus and I learned the words to the rest of the Christmas carols (the origins of the Carolers: began as mummers and was part of the celebration in ancient Rome called Saturnalia, honoring the God of Agriculture, Saturn, and this celebration started in Dec and slid into January when neighbors would go from house to house and sing and rejoice due to the bounty of harvest...thus began the Carol Singers) 

 So in art class I drew and cut out the Star of Bethlehem and squashed aluminum foil all over it...and then when I brought it home there was no tree, no lights, no colored balls, no fruit cake no carols on the little radio..and it seemed drab and cold in comparison to the Joy we were having at school in celebration of Christmas!

So this memory of Christmas that started in a child who had no reason to  celebrate Christmas felt it as --warmth-- that is what was instilled in me via a school system and eventually became a way for me to share warmth with my family, my son, and since we were at it may as well invite my mother, my sisters, and later on their husbands and then later still the girlfriends of my son.  So this is how Christmas grew to be in my life the history of the event notwithstanding the foregoing!

When I moved to NY to run away from the overburdened life I had created for myself I bought this little tree even though I lived alone and had no one to share the holiday with...I worked every single Christmas that I lived there the time and a half was too good to pass up...BUT this ugly little tree made in China and purchased at the 99c store warmed the emptiness, and made me feel closer to the family I had run away from!! (does that make sense?)

 So as Socrates examined the world in which he lived he asked questions that he wanted answers to --he questioned the power and the power consumed him...I have to question can this warmth we all wish to create during holiday time come directly from within US? Why can't it originate solely from inside our heart as part of our emotions toward the people we love, and cant it be expressed outwardly so everyone feels it and returned in kind?  Do we really need a funny looking tree with a star on top to create this wonderful feeling of warmth? Can we be like the Who's down in Whoville, can we have Christmas without a tree, a plum pudding, and a Visa bill in January?

I sure hope so, cause I dont feel the warmth anymore~

Take Time to Make Time

e had our first frost of the new season-last night, this means its officially Fall for sure!! It also means our planet the Earth has moved farther our on her orbit away from our Star the Sun...

It's 35 chilly degrees and it will go up to 57 today..The sky is blue, the air is breezy and its Sunday morning 8:30 which is really 9:30!!
I am not a big fan of the Day Light Savings time.  Anyone who reads my Writtn's in this blog know how fascinated I am with the concept of time and how and what it is.  TIME is space, and we occupy space so can we really manipulate time?  YES we can when we combine it with SPEED!!  Im only a fan of combining speed and time if Im trying to move TIME forward or back.  Moving the hands of a clock does not MOVE TIME--

When I was traveling this spring I got so confused as to what time it was I just stayed on Eastern Time! When I was in AZ they dont follow the DST and yet on the Navajo Reservation land that is in AZ they DO--so I was in and out of changing time zones--very confusing to my aging brain!!

When My Mom and I traveled back in 1998 together for 34 days around the country we finally gave up and just didnt bother to look at the time, we knew the sun was either up or down.  Sitting high above or closer to the ground, the Sun told us what time it was.  That is also the way it was when I was backpacking the Appalachian trail. Once you get in a rhythm with Mother Nature you start to realize keeping time by the hour is not really necessary! What's the point? We got up when the birds sang in the trees overhead and we went to bed when it got too dark to see--didnt take long for our cicadian clocks to get reset to the correct time!!

Only men wearing ties and women wearing business casual need this kind of time divisions and this down to the second measurement of time, why must the rest of us be dragged along in the stream of their faster than life passage of time?

These days we live with such a false sense of security-thinking we can control time, only the Universe can do that. We can control the speed at which we move through time that is all.  We move at speeds way beyond our own means, in a car we go 80 MPH yet on foot we can walk if we really move fast at 4 mph. (it take me 18 minutes to walk a mile if I'm walking comfortably, If I walk faster 15) SO just taking that little bit of math you can see how we are MOVING way out of our comfort zone-a disconnetion!!



IF I were to walk across this country as many have done, if I didnt stop to rest (which I know I have to do) I could walk 40 miles if I had 10 good hrs of light and the body of a 20 yr old..but with me I could probably do 10 or 15 on level ground. So according to this mileage calculator its 2,175 miles from my location to Ventura California...so it would take me 145 days--if I walk every day 15 miles--WOW-image what kind of life experience I could have if I were out there walking for 145 days? I could pack so much into a day!! There are endless possibilities of the number of people I would encounter, the things I would see and witness.

Instead when I recently drove to AZ I took my time, I drove only 8 hrs a day and yet I still got there in 5 days! I thought I was taking my time...WHAT If I drove only 15 miles a day? What memories I could accumulate!! It would have taken me  months just to arrive in AZ!!

When we slow down and take our time we absorb more, we are more connected and we are more in tune with the true nature of our bodies. So if I drove 15 miles a day I could go 374 miles on one tank of gas and it would take me 25 days Imagine all the awesome memories I could accumulate in 25 days!!


So the point is if we slow down we get more life in this lifetime!! We get what we put in...if we zoom around at the speed of light...what do we see-- a BLUR, if we slow down we see each star and each blade of grass we see each butterfly, each tree and each person we come into contact with --with clarity and then maybe understanding could actually sink in.  When we take the time to really spend TIME with someone the differences start to disappear and in that place is understanding.

My hope for the rest of my time on this planet is that I wont say I didnt have time---because we all have the same number of hours in a day, its the speed at which we travel that determines how much time we have! We turned back the clock...now what are you going to do with that hour?

Is it worth saving?

ell the elections are over, Im not happy with some results but now that my vote is cast I have no responsibility but to accept whatever the holders of those jobs will do. Or do I? Ya know Ive never understood why in this country we dont get out in the streets and shout when a candidate we dont approve of is elected? Is it because we know we are wasting our time or is it because we have lost our passion for what we believe in?

If we went out onto the street and protested first off the police would probably come and tell us to go home! Thats a free political system?

I spoke to many people who did not vote. They all said the same thing...they have lost their zeal and zest for making a difference. Wow Im glad that people like Martin Luther King didnt just sit down and say, Oh well may as well not bother-or what if a woman who was born in 1820 hadn't bothered to spread her message of civil rights for women..she traveled extensively giving speeches and making comments such as the one Im quoting here-

Speaking at the Ninth National Women’s Rights Convention on May 12, 1859, Susan B. Anthony asked "Where, under our Declaration of Independence, does the Saxon man get his power to deprive all women and Negroes of their inalienable rights?"

But for her diligence and for the diligence of others like her we women of all colors in this country would have been turned away at the polls. WE must cast a vote as long as there is hope that our system is still viable. If you were told you could NOT vote and had no say how would you react then? Would you shout in the streets?


So that makes me think that many people have drawn the conclusion that the current democratic system is NO longer working, and maybe not worth trying to salvage. Its times such as these when the public sits on their hands that opens doors---possibly a Pandora's box.

I recall a history of people who when faced with living in a nation that did not share their belief system, they packed up a few ships and left! They had a good idea...what went wrong?


The new movement of the Tea Party is just another division between us. I wish the political system could be abolished..NO Party rooster..no party affiliation...the polarization of the political parties is as unmoving as the lines of religious practice in the world. It is as if a new cold war is happening between the Democrat and the Republican parties. Back when Ross Perot created a third party I had big hopes only to see them squashed...and I had huge hopes of leadership into the future from Obama. He has tried but he has failed with his back down from the fight attitude same as the voting public has backed down...they have thrown down their flags and walked away.


That line "you can please some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time" should be going over and over in his mind. He has to stay true to the ones who put him in office wanting the change he spoke of...but in his efforts to please the right he has angered the left--and the middle of the road people have thrown up their hands in disgust.


A government of the people, for the people, and by the people that still sounds like a great idea..but is that what we have now?
Is it of the people? That would mean the person we have representing us is one of us, I dont feel that at all with the people in our government. One of us would be the high school principal, the guy from the gas station, the lady at the post office. For the people, not hardly politicians are in it for the money,fame, and the power. Corporations are calling the shots now...and special interest. By the people--well I lost faith in that one when GW Bush won 2 elections without winning the popular vote..so I dont think so.


I found this: Concerning the writing of the Constitution-
Among the chief points at issue were how much power to allow the central government, how many representatives in Congress to allow each state, and how these representatives should be elected--directly by the people or by the state legislators. The work of many minds, the Constitution stands as a model of cooperative statesmanship and the art of compromise. We need to reread it: number one on my list of changes is

• Limit terms of Senators to 4 yrs and thats it!
• Same with Congress-
• to abolish the party system,
• abolish the campaigning-
• abolish the contributions
• abolish the lobbyists,
• create a new method of selecting who will run!

If its worth saving its worth doing whatever it takes to start making change. Whats on your list?

The Corporate Coop of America Part III

 HAT IS --FASCISM-(according to Wikipedia-Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy)


Who is controlling the Media   Our media is no longer the watchdog it once was!! Large Corporations now own the media! All one has to do is listen to the Right Wing Controlled Fox News to see that propaganda is running wild in American medias today. Rupert Murdock an Australian with many ruthless years in TV and Newspaper business owns and runs Fox News with lots of shotty deals in his background he has his hand in many foul pies. Along with him is an Arabian Prince Al-Walid-Bin Talal who owns 7% of Fox News..so why do Americans tune in to hear this extremely biased news program?  Fox news is trying to undermine the confidence of the public in our democratic president, why is that?  Why can't we come together and work for the common good of all?  Fox news is anti Black, anti Hispanic, anti-gay, anti American!!  If you are tuned into Fox News then I know you are a bigot and not planning on helping to bring us all together...

NBC is owned by the giant company of General Electric, CBS is owned by Viacom/Westinghouse, and ABC by Disney, CNN belongs to Time Warner, where is the non BIAS in any of those??  PBS is the only place I feel comfortable believing the news- many times its sensationalized for dramatic effect and for ratings!



The Work Place Shutdown


The few jobs left in this country have many qualified persons waiting to fill those slots.  It’s almost impossible to get fair treatment in the work place. You have to be part of the TEAM…which basically means there is no place for critical individual thinking in the work place…(you will be assimilated) they give you a handbook and you are to follow it to the T- yet when you call in sick they will treat you as if you are hurting them by taking care of you. Once I called in sick and was told that I would have to bring a Dr’s note. I replied, “In my employee handbook it says I will have to bring a Dr’s note if I am absent 3 days in a row.” So my employer's policy was to have the girl who answered the phone...lie by telling everyone that…many I’m sure would come into work anyway---while their rights are being trampled on.


You have to sign papers and forms “you were informed of the new policy” etc this goes in your employee file, if you forget and break that new policy rule, they have a sweet little paper as grounds to fire you, OH actually they don’t even need grounds, employers have the strength while workers are losing rights every day…

Northern Unions are the main reason we have lost jobs.  Union employees are over paid and even if they are not good employees they are very hard to fire!  So with Unions running the show the jobs left the COUNTRY!! American workers have to realize there is a line somewhere in the sand where you're pay is exceeding your value! 

MANY American corporations have taken the jobs out of this country…yet the cost of the goods they are selling us is getting out of reach for most—the gap gets wider while the wealthy take more and more control of our society and the take jobs out of this country…less jobs means less sales, so the cost of the foreign manufactured goods goes up and up and the wealthy investors and stock holder continue to live an elitist life style- until the bubble breaks. SO even though the jobs left the prices of goods have risen and continue to rise!  So we became too big for our breeches and now we have no jobs.  Where can we go from here?

Third world employees are being abused and used as I’m sure they are misled to believe they are now in the big time—working for an US company they are told how much better their lives will be now that they are working for an American company, making clothes and shoes they cant even afford to BUY! Watching third world countries climb out of poverty while US companies are the very oppressors keeping them in the dirt. 

Got Benefits?

More and more benefits are being removed, employers are making more and more demands on an employee’s time, people are routinely being forced to work overtime or threatened with losing the job. I recently saw one of my old co-workers from Wal-Mart. (I worked at Walmart for 6 months after I moved while I looked for a better job).  She still works there and told me she has been there 10 yrs now and she gets 3 weeks vacation!! I know she routinely is told she has to come in on her days off, she has to stay an hour later, I recall how it was working for Wal-Mart. I didn’t want to tell her I had taken a 3-week vacation and I don’t even have a job right now!! She told me she has to go in for a CT-Scan because she has a spot on her lung, found on a chest x-ray she recently had done when she had a check up...I wondered why was she not out on medical leave so she could get a medical work up?


Is There A Solution?


For one I boycott, boycott, boycott. I don’t spend much money but I try to spend it where it will sends the biggest message. I don’t buy meat, diary, fish, processed foods, I don’t take any prescription drugs, I don’t work a 9-5 job and I don’t bother trying to keep up with the Jones’s. I don’t have high speed internet, and stay away from malls and chain stores as much as possible. I buy at the Goodwill when I can; I try to support local businesses and farmers markets.

I really hope that we can convince (with our spending power sending them a message) Corporations to bring the jobs back home!  If the CEO's and the corporate big whigs would take a pay cut, and if Unions would lower wages and if the minimum wage was raised to come more in line, we may be able to put this country back to work. The medical profession has to be brought back in line with reality..WHY Is it that I saw a news program about a woman who was going to have to pay $14,000 to get her teeth fixed.  SHE had dental insurance but it was NOT going to cover the cost completely.  She went to Costa Rica and got it done for $4,000. 
The reason was so much govt regulation here, high cost of liability insurance and the charges are so inflated in the USA.  You can get cheaper medical and medications in other countries, why do we Have to have the Best of Everything..and now its getting where the ordinary US citizen cant afford the Cheap stuff let alone the good stuff..SO is that causing a split in our society?


Most Americans don’t care, they are complacent and they really don’t give a damn! They get fat, sick and get the pills to fix them up or have bariactric surgery!! Buy cancer insurance on top of regular insurance, because you got a little paper in the mail saying your insurance co. will no longer COVER CANCER!! (because everyone is gonna get it if Americans dont wake up and change their diet)


The insurance companies know what I know and what you should know Americans are at high risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, digestive disorders and disease, osteoporosis, mental breakdowns, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and Alzheimer. Why is that?

It’s the stress of the American lifestyle, the marketing done by big business to keep us buying the very unhealthy food they sell to us, the side effects of the drugs doctors put us on, and the stresses of trying to keep our crappy jobs that still exist and doesn’t pay  enough to be able to purchase good wholesome foods, to take time to relax and vacation, and very little time for exercise and recreation.


The American dream has been tarnished by the very free capitalist idealism it was founded on, is there such a thing as too much of a good thing? No what is wrong is there is too much of a bad thing going around and the good things are now out of reach for most Americans.

I know what you are saying--the system is broken and I'm powerless to change it.  WRONG- you hold all the power in your hands!! You dont have to buy into this out of control capitalism that is rotting our society and our home. 

Be the Change You Want to See in the World.

Each journey is completed one step at a time.  It's kind of my motto!  If we each do this then Change has occurred!! Dont allow "them" to scare you.  Go about your life as if "they" dont exist.  I dont go to McDonalds, why buy that crappy food that makes you sick and is slowing taking the vigor out of your life?  Buy fresh and cook at home!!

Change the way you live your life, if you want to see more people having a better life, if you dont care about others then dont read any further and go on your merry way.


I know many are so tired on their way home they hit the drive through...I know this exhaustion that comes from working long hours--I have been there!  AND who knows I may end up there again, I certainly HOPE not, but I will do what I have to, same as anyone.

 You can cook a huge pot of brown rice, and then each day when you get home put some fresh veggies in a steamer by the time you get into your comfy clothes it will be nearly ready.  Add some of your rice- make a quick fresh salad and its a nutritious meal with little fuss.  I used to chop all my veggies and have them clean and ready to go in separate containers in the fridge.  All I had to do was grab it and add it.  I washed, spinned, and chopped my lettuce FRESH not that prepacked stuff, and keep it in a green bag in the fridge-
Next day open a can of black beans and add to the rice, add a whole wheat tortilla you got a good meal in minutes.  So you see how it goes.  I dont eat meat so that saves a ton of time, money, and animals!!  So plan some meals cook staples ahead of time and keep it simple-

Stay away from Processed foods as much as possible!! These are the worst foods you can buy dont let the marketing of this product fool you into thinking its healthy...READ the label.  Educate yourself...I suggest the films of Micheal Moore, & Morgan Spurlock
I suggest you see
Supersizing Me,
Sicko,
Capitalism: A Love Story

Try to spend your money in local owned business and pay cash!  This way the money you spend stays in your community!  (business owners have to pay a % to banks for the use of credit and debit cards...
Support the unknowns--Boycott companies that have sold US out and gone to third world countries to have their good made for pennies while they charge you outrageous prices for these goods.

Recycle, reuse, re purpose!! This saves money, and keeps you out of chain stores and corporate owned businesses.  I know MOST Americans use name brand stuff!! I dont understand why? Some items we have almost NO choice already--we cant find American made goods any more so what do we do?  Try buying used whenever possible-need a new tv, stereo, vcr, dvd player?  I bet the second hand store has one!!

When it comes to medications... get on a good diet and exercise program, you may be able to stop taking medicines if you create a healthier body.  Then talk to your Dr and make sure you really need those drugs, and be sure he is allowing generics!

If you can-- home school your kids!! I personally think satellite teaching is the direction this country should go with Education!  TOO much money is being spent for our kids to be brainwashed by bad teachers!! The surface is barely being scratched in this area..and its become almost as out of control.

Speaking of the Senate ..why re-elect anyone who is NOT in favor of changing the status quo? It hasnt worked and its what has brought us to this point...we need people who are not afraid to face up to the Ridiculous Right--the Tea Party is more white right so BEWARE!! And now that the Reps have won so many seats the Bush Tax Cuts that help only the rich will stay in place and the sinking middle class will have to try and hold up that burden yet again?

Get off the grid, or at least use it as little as possible.  I do think that in the next few years having home with electricity is going to be a luxury as most things are becoming a luxury--as prices soar and jobs are cut and outsourced.  Finding other ways to supply our needs are a must do for each of us.  Solar & wind power generation is now available to anyone who can afford to put it in.  I hope it will get cheaper as it becomes more available...clean water is a very big issue with me.  Drilling wells for persona l use is on the rise.  I think the day will come when water will become a political issue across this country not just in the dry west.  Rain colletion on a mass scale should be done! Our government is too busy trying to blow their own agenda horn to see that we need to take steps that insure a prosperous future for all.  Water collection and storage is something no one has even touched on at the global level..WHY? We have rivers, that are polluted, and diverted...if rain water catch and storage facilities were put in place each community would have an ample reserve of water!  Ever hear that saying money doesnt fall out of the sky...guess what--IT DOES!!

Our homes should all have solar panels a wind turbine in the back yard a well in the ground and a water collection system in place!  Its due to the corporate "lifestyle" that we wont have these things..Those things help us sustain our lives and takes away our dependance on our needs to be supplied rather than us taking our lives back from corporate control.  A cell phone is not going to get you nourished or help you cook your food, but everyone has one..why dont we all have solar panels???

I know this comes off as hostile and in a way I am more and more hostile to a system that I can no longer support! Business is one thing, taking the whole pie is another.  Sometimes there is NO BETTER MOUSE TRAP...many of the old ways was the best way.  We supported each other and yet we were allowed to be individuals and were paid a good wage for a honest days work..what was wrong with that?  The Bush years have put us in a bind, his wars cost us a fortune, he left this country in a mess and now the clean up crew is getting the blame for a shoddy clean up...well it will take at the very least the same amount of time to undo the damage as it did to do the damage.  The Dems have played a big part in writing the legislation that got us where we are..We can simplify and streamline without leaving anyone behind if we do what is best for all!
Create change in your own house-then watch it spread!!