My relationship the symbol of ANZAC

“My relationship to the ANZAC” in response to the question ‘what is the meaning of ANZAC to you personally?’

Its not so simple. Its all tied up to a certain ‘coming of age’ experience I’ve been avoiding for most of my life.

For more details of what happened, you can read it here – http://dragonflies-draw-flame.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-i-lost-my-innocence.html

Basically, after running for 35 years of my life, I discovered another shade to the meaning of responsibility.

I wanted to engage in an aware, responsible, adult relationship with my country. I wanted to become a contributing member of our society. Someone who put their action where there bad tempered mumbling once was.

Though, when it came to the idea of ANZAC, I had to revise what I had previously thought.

I remember marching when I was under 6, drumming in the early morning parade for the local RSL. You had to be quiet for a whole minute. And stock still. While the drum sticks wanted to keep drumming.

I recoiled from ANZAC day parades as I grew older, seeing them as a celebration and reminder of aspects of white Australia that I didn’t like.

Racism, aggression, short sightedness, ignorance, blindly being pawns of political power, mindless Aussie cheering, arrogance united with stupidity.

Here I am, on my rediscovery of Australia, ready to reveal a new meaning for ANZAC day.

I don’t want to take away from the past. I want to try to understand, in the context of the times, the motivation, the patriotism, and the feelings of sacrifice associated with war. I don’t want to judge people for what has happened. I just want to say I remember, I’m sorry for it, it’s a SHARED history and it has made our present. We need to learn from the past and forge a new path to move into the future.

We were in the Cloncurry Library when I picked up a book entitled The Last ANZAC’s. Lest we forget, written and photographed by Tony Stephens and Steven Stewert. In it, I read words that gave me hope and inspired me to write positively of my new understanding of ANZAC day.

The Last ANZAC’s.

Doug Dibley ‘It does deem to be to be a peculiar world in which we live when we can not think of any other way of settling disputes, without murdering one another.’

Tom Epps ‘The are not days about the glory of war or about Nationalism, but a lesson in the futility of war. I was brainless, but I’m not sorry I went. It taught me how stupid the politicians and military can be. They were boneheads. The 1914-18 war was a mass murder. 99% of war is stupid.’

‘If there is no other way of settling arguments, the human race should be exterminated.’

Roy Kyle ‘Empires come and go. Enemies become friends, friends become enemies. Everything changes. Little lasts.’

Roy Longmore ‘They’re no good, these wars. A lot of lives lost, no use at all. There’s got to be another way of fixing up these rows without killing each other.’

Ted Mathews (famously) ‘Some people call us ‘five-bob-a-day’ murderers, but the politicians were the murderers. Politicians make up the wars. They don’t go to them.’

Jack Buntime – His ‘early life taught him the value of the family’.

Alec Campbell – He ‘insisted that all his children receive good educations and grow up to think for them selves’.

Just as a child grows, so does a country. Just as we mimic our elders, so does the country look to older models as a guide on how to be a nation. And just as the child grows into adult hood and develops the need to express itself in its own way, so does the people of each country. And we have the voice. We have the freedom, if we choose it, to learn from the mistakes of the past, and to create a new way of ‘settling arguments’, ‘fixing up rows’, ‘settling disputes’.

We can learn. We can shake our head to our parents and say, no, I don’t want to follow your footsteps any more. Our parents might threaten us, they might bully us, they might take away our privileges, but it’s the right of a growing nation to take the blows happily, knowing that every step it takes in a new direction, on its own, it gains freedom and learning and respect.

Its ok to admit we were wrong. Its ok to start again, to try again, and make it better this time.

But learn from the past we must. Don’t let their lives be a waste. Learn from what they have said. Find new ways to talk about our differences.

And it starts with you. And with me. Violence in the home, in the school yard, in the work place, in the pubs. Commit to ‘another way’ to settle arguments. Explore channels of communication. What works? What doesn’t? How many people have to die because they should learn their lesson?

Their history is our history, weather we take heed of it or not. I just want to say I acknowledge what went on, and I’m sorry for it. Our combined understanding and voice can make a difference.

The above was written as a response to a personal query I received. I have used edited material from a previous post http://journals.worldnomads.com/allwelcome/post/18563.aspx I wrote earlier this year.

Passion and Ration

Some guidelines for dealing with the passion with a dash of ration.

“The unfortunate thing about passionate subjects such as patriotism is that some people can tend to become defensive if they perceive their values are being attacked.” *

Let’s admit it. We want everyone to agree with us and to believe what we say without criticism.

Then we get a little more experience, and discover that the ideals and the beliefs we held so dear when we were teenagers, have, thankfully, been toned down with experience and a better understanding of the complexities of life.

Age is a high price to pay for maturity.

Some points to consider before engaging in discussion

1) Are you offering your opinions so that other people can discuss them?

2) Do you just want to have your say?

3) Will you be offended if someone disagrees with you, or offers another opinion?

4) Why are you on a group called ‘debate’, if you just want to shout from a megaphone?

5) ? I’m sure there are lots of other points and you are welcome to point them out.


What are values?

Values are the things we hold dear to us. They are valuable. They are the words we say when we see our friends and family in dire straights, when we see injustice on the TV and we suffer over because often, they don’t really mirror the reality of the world we live in.

Values undergo change, depending on how much money we have, depending on how much we want it, depending on what our friends think, depending on what era we are born in, depending on, well, many things.

If values can change so much, where is the inherent truth in them, and why do we give them so much importance?

If we can perceive our values are attacked, we become defensive. Its true, isn’t it? So, if we know, that our values have changed in our own life time, and would have changed depending on if we were born a Turk, or born a German Jew in 1925, if you were born in any one else’s shoes other than your own, then… we can see that there are many things that can attack our value system, and no wonder we feel so defensive all of the time. Because everything is challenging us all of the time. Isn’t it?

So, how can we win?

By being aware. By being tolerant, and realizing that not everything can be won by screaming. Screaming it louder than anyone else doesn’t make it right. It just makes it annoying.

Discussion, where there is a civil volley of response, is ideal. Sometimes I serve, some times you serve. Sometimes you floor me with an ace, and sometimes I bamboozle you with technique. Its all ok. Its just words.

Remember, you can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.

Comments welcome.

* Written to me in private correspondance

How I lost my innocence

For some reason, I knew that traveling around Australia was going to be the breaking point for me. Perhaps that’s why I left 12 years ago – to avoid the mantle of responsibility.

I’ve traveled around little pockets of the world, but I didn’t see how its existence was my concern. It existed before me. It was doing its thing without any interference from me. I was just taking a look.

I’ve heard the stereotypes about Australia. The legend of Steve Irwin. The horror of our creepy crawlies. The wonder of Kylie. Aussie girls rule. Oh, and aren’t we a racist lot?

I keep trying to pin point the exact moment everything fell apart. The sudden jolt of awareness that shifted my perspective and destroyed my unadulterated joy in shopping, in music, in eating, in driving in a car, in relationships, in the meaning of life and the purpose of my existence.

Of course, there is not just one point… the more I look at it, I can see the seed being sown some 20 years before. The seed has just outgrown its case and needed a different nutrient for its growth.

About two months ago, I read an essay written by Edmund Burke. In it, I read these words

‘society is indeed a contract …. It is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all art; a partnership in all virtue, and in all perfection..... each contract of each particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of eternal society, linking the lower with the higher natures, connecting the visible and invisible world…..’

I threw the book down. I felt my head burning. I turned to my partner and started yelling obscenities because I felt abused, robbed, shocked and outraged.

I was reading Burke because C.W. Parkin wrote ‘Burke … believes that the world is a unity, that society, for all its complexity, its heights and depths, forms part of a harmony of nature.’

I’m researching members of the different educational disciplines who view our world through the perspective of unity.

A great part of life consists in contemplating what we cannot
cure. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Burke’s words horrified me. To my way of thinking, it was inferring that the unwritten contract, that I was even unaware of, existed between me and the society I was, errr, mostly a bored, and at most, a disdainful observer and occasional mumble-complainer.

Me? In a contract with society? A relationship existed between us? An unwritten contract? Something that was just a given? Passed on from generation to generation? Why didn’t somebody spell this out to me? I spoke to my mother, and do you know what she said?

‘I don’t understand what you mean. If its not a written contract, its not worth the paper its written on. You can’t even tear it up. You’re talking tommy rot and you’ve been taken for a ride.’

But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. ~Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum


I look at her with a feeling of doom, I take a breath, and I explain the idea of an unwritten contract in words I hope she will understand. The ‘taking for granted’ of certain things in personal relationships. The unspoken rules in relationships governing mother and child, father and son, mate and mate’s girlfriend. Maybe we don’t speak about so often, and usually its not written down, but the ‘rules’ exist. The contract between you and your spouse, or you and your parents exist weather its written or not.

And the idea of validating an unwritten contract between myself and society just hadn’t occurred to me before.

It knocked my socks off.

If your eyes are open, and you suddenly see what you couldn’t before, do you just ignore it and keep doing what you were doing before, or do you throw in the towel and stand up to the line?

Throw in the towel of ignorance is what.

Stand up to the line of responsibility is what.

It reminded me of the moment I knew, for sure, that I was pregnant. I’d never liked children and thought of them as repulsive little snot filled terrorists. But when the double stroke glowed that vomit inducing pale pink, there wasn’t, for me, a moment to contemplate ‘ignoring it’. I couldn’t. My life changed for ever. My attitude changed for ever. I could no longer be as selfish as I was. It was a foul swing at my short sighted selfishness and cured me of some stupidity. But it was tough at the time. I felt I’d ridden up against a brick wall.

Now it seems I’m ready to go the next step into the wider world. Me and society.

Stepping up to the line. Accepting responsibility for my half of the contract.

I’m still pulling at the bit. I’m still trying to find the balance between my sense of duty to what I feel I have discovered and just wanting to toss it all aside and live in Thailand somewhere getting massages and swimming in pristine waters… What am I doing? Why do I care?
And this brings us back to the first seed, and the beginning of everything.

I was 14 when I was left with my grandparents for a holiday. Two weeks later, my step mother calls me and tells me over the phone that now I’m living with my grandparents.

The grand illusion of childhood is that your parents, no matter what they do, are right and good and, this is important, know what they are doing. That is, that they are conscious of what they are doing.

We all know that we don’t know what we are doing, but a child probably feels safer if they believe we are some sort of semi-god.

All of us suffer disillusionment in stages we’re not conscious of, or in one giant dive.

I couldn’t maintain the illusion any more. I lay in my fold up bed in the lounge of my grandparent’s house and bit by bit, all of the repressed information I had about my parents burst upon me in a flood.

The one thing I judged them on, and am still their greatest critic, is their lack of responsibility. So, of course, if I judge another for not being responsible, how, if I am faced with information that increases my responsibility to the world, can I ignore it?

For me, its impossible.

So here I am. Signing, in my own way, my side of the unwritten contract between me and society.

I wonder if society knows what it has unleashed?

I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything, and many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here, and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit, but if I can't figure it out, then I go on to something else. But I don't have to know an answer.... I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me. ~Richard Phillips Feynman

Why do we need to control our emotions?

‘But I want to feel alive. I want to feel the emotions course through me. I want to be taken away.’

The Chinese doctor shook his head, almost imperceptibly pursed his lips, handed me some herbs and shooed me out the door.

I think of that moment with a mixture of amusement, disbelief and embarrassment.

Amused with my youthful insistence on defending the rights of uncontrolled emotional impulses.

Disbelief that I could be so naïve.

Embarrassment that I didn’t take shut my mouth and just listen.

I had booked the appointment with the doctor because I was suffering migraines. I was 17 and dependant on anti-depressants and prescription headache prevention tablets. I was taking 4 different tablets a day.

I knew that I was in a bad state, at such an age, and I wanted an alternative.
But when I went in for advice, I didn’t listen. I just defended my own choices stubbornly.

So, what have I learnt in the last 20 years?

Why is control of our emotions important?

Generally speaking, we can put the emotions into two groups. Emotions that enhance our feelings of wellbeing, and emotions that destroy our feelings of wellbeing.

Enhancers Destroyers
Happiness Sadness
Delight Dissatisfaction


Then, we can think of emotions that enhance our wellbeing of the moment, but later on, we feel regretful and often curse our stupidity. There are examples to the contrary, but they are a handful compared to the majority of stories I have heard.


Positive Emotions that usually fall through with time
- In love sensations
- Excitement linked to gambling, drugs, any obsessive behaviour.
- Patriotism when inspired by a moving speech but time shows was just a vote catcher.
- Happiness related to retail therapy

Now while we can never be really sure about the final outcome of the emotions we are experiencing, experience guides us to take it easy, and not follow your heart in all cases.

Sometimes there are emotions that make us feel bad at the moment, but after some time, the effects of that emotion actually enhance our life quality.

Emotions that destroy us temporarily, and can lead to life enhancement
- Guilt
- Regret
- Embarrassment
- Hitting rock bottom leaves us only one place to go (if we do not give into the temptation of suicide) – up
- Anger


Again, its about exercising some control, some ration, some wisdom.

Every situation is different, but if we don’t temper our emotions with the learnings of our experience, then we remain a victim of our emotional swings.

Emotions can be wonderful to ride them at the moment, and they can cause us deep regret.

Observing our emotions, understanding our triggers and endeavoring to exhibit some control is, in my opinion, the necessary work of responsible people aware of the importance of relationships and communication.

A great story about anger - http://magazine.byu.edu/g/?act=view&a=152

I’d rather lose hate than weight - http://theuniverseandhumanstupidity.wordpress.com/

Why do we lie to our children?

.

Story telling and its original purpose


Mum said ‘When did your parents tell you that? Were you at a young age, were you putting things into your ears?’

Albert had just retold a story about a relative finding a bead inside of his ear, after suffering weeks of pain.

My mother’s obvious conclusion was that Albert’s parents were trying to teach Albert a lesson about not putting things into his ears. In other words, she thought that his parents told Albert an untrue story that would help him to live a life free of ear pain induced by putting random objects into his ear.

Today, we don’t really tell our children these kind of stories. We are more likely to tell them ‘facts’, like eating too many sweets will produce plaque and thus more visits to the dentist and subsequently more pain.

It doesn’t seem to be having much impact on their sweet intake, but it makes us feel like we are not lying to our children, that we are being informative and educational, not like our superstitious parents forcing us not to walk under ladders and something about throwing salt over the left shoulder.

But what was the original meaning behind the stories we once told?

I was recently traveling around outback Australia, and I came across informative centers where I read many stories where animals spoke and lessons were learnt about how to take care of the land, and how to share water and the consequences of not heeding the lesson of the stories.

Some Australian Indigenous groups are amongst the oldest surviving nomadic peoples in the world. They had a relatively untouched (by outside influences) culture until only 200 years ago, perhaps leading us to a broader understanding of how societies emerged and evolved over time.

I saw on the TV an indigenous program where an older male was repeating stories to a child (of about 2 years old) about someone needing help, and the elder repeated ‘give away your things’, while simultaneously wiping the child’s palm away from the body.

I don’t have a lot of research about this topic, but even if we look back to our own childhoods, some of the stories had a moral purpose, like ‘The boy who cried wolf’ and 'King Midas'. They were not true stories, they are what we term fables or fairytales, and they were told with the preposition that what we tell children should help equip them for an adult life where one’s behavior will have consequences – don’t tell lies or people won’t believe you anymore. If you only chase after gold, in the end you’ll end up only with material goods and nothing else.

Today we don’t have a lot of time for stories. Today we tell facts. We tell facts about tooth decay and eating to much will make you fat and if you don’t study you won’t get a good job and we dress our children in designer wear so that they’ll fit in to a social group and we indulge there need for brand sneakers (because we understand) and we leave them in front of the television for the stories we used to tell.

Imagine. Sitting around a fireside, listening to the deep voice of your grandfather while you are gently held by your older sister, or your mother. You hear a story about helping each other in times of need. The story has drama and passion and everyone’s face is lit up with the light of the flames from the centre of your family and friends.

Imagine. Sitting around a television, listening to canned laughter and the nasal intonation of a smart mouthed teenager girl dressed in the best designer jeans you’ve seen. You’re alone because everyone else is watching their own TV in their own room. You hear a story about a boyfriend sleeping with a best friend and how a gun man terrorized a school in a state in North America you didn’t know existed and still can’t remember what state it was. The story has drama and a certain irony because you knew that the boy wasn’t to be trusted and the gunman was probably being ignored at a girl at his school and there is no one beside you on the lounge.

The television is telling the moral stories our children are listening to.

How many times have you though ‘I wonder where he/she gets that from?’

You know where. The TV is teaching our children the values of our society.

Its teaching the glory of the United States of America. The glory of the mighty dollar. That status is in brand names. That self value is dictated by how pretty, thin, and rich you are. Its teaching the value of short term pleasure over long term happiness.

We used to lie to our children to encourage them to be safe, to help them in social interaction, to enhance their wellbeing.

We lie to our children now that we don’t have time for them. But we have 30 minutes to browse on the internet. We have 30 minutes to indulge in our favorite magazine. We have 30 minutes for our selves. Then we let the TV do the rest of the talking.

Exercise for the mind

Its time to get some balance into the ‘healthy’ equation.

What ‘s the point of having a strong and health body if your mind is a slob?

Readers of this blog believe in holistic health, and yet, we focus on the health of the body, and submit our selves to a life of spending money we don’t have to buy goods we don’t need to impress people we don’t like.*

Does this sound like you? Just think about the last three items you bought. Were they to gain admiration from people you don’t respect anyway? Could you really afford the last luxury item you purchased, or did it chain you further to your bank and to your job?

We are blinding ourselves with the power of our credit cards. It’s a band aid effect to help us cope in a world where we see hypocrisy, lies, uneven wealth distribution, shocking overseas news, fallen family values, deceitful friends and unfaithful lovers.

Just put the brakes on.

Just say stop.

I’ve seen people thrashing it out on the treadmill. I’ve seen people at body pump classes struggling with something more than wanting a tighter back side. And I’ve seen yoga students dealing with a lot more than joint flexibility.

We’re talking a reassessment of our values. We’re talking about prioritizing our time. We’re talking about living our yoga off the mat. We’re talking authenticity for our ‘ideals’. The very things we, in our heart, believe in.

Healthy body
- exercise in moderation (or a little more, not less)
- fresh, healthy food
- fresh air and out door activity
- sunlight in moderation

Healthy mind
- be aware of what you spend your time doing. Is it contributing to the health of your mind, or is it making you more paranoid?
- Be careful not to read beauty magazines – they sell you products that are overpriced and values that in your heart, you can not believe.
- Is the TV repeating fearful stories? Is it telling you to hope for when you win the lottery? Is it telling you that you need to buy more? Turn it off.
- The internet is a wonderful world. What do you spend your time doing? Looking at celebrities? Looking at Hollywood movie reviews selling more superficial values and idealism of romance?
- What do you talk to your friends about? Are you criticizing other friends? Are you being supportive? Dou you dislike your friend because they seem prettier than you?
- What does the voice say inside your head? Is it positive, or complaining?
- Are you always tired and don’t know why?

Then stop the lies. You know what I’m talking about. Stop lying. Stop living a lie. Stop telling yourself lies. Stop telling your children lies.

Don’t take the easy way out. Leave it to someone else to do. They can’t make you a healthy mind. Just like nobody can come and take your yoga class for you. You’ve got to do it yourself.
Balance. Healthy body. Healthy mind.


* Rewritten quote from Affluenza by Clive Hamilton, Richard Denniss (2005)

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My secret

I have a plan.

A plan to shock and shift the values in our society.

I am researching the commons in our unity. The fabrications, the illusions, the positives, the negatives.

When I have a handful of strings from the diversity of thought from systems like politics, economics, psychologists, scientists, I will draw them together and weave a strong rope.

These strings will represent the strong undercurrent of sweeping social change I can feel emerging with every beat of my heart.

We will focus our energies on the things we have in common.

- Our belief in making decisions based on our long term happiness over short term pleasure

- Our commitment to understanding our responsibility in our position of affluence

- Our belief in living our ‘ideals’ – authenticity

- Our commitment to humanities future through caring for and forging stronger, supportive relationships to our children

- Our understanding of the environmental crisis we are facing with countries such as India and China desiring to consume as much as we do, and understanding our entire system needs overhauling if we are to survive

Take a look at www.wellbeingmanifesto.net for more ideas.

Why?

Because we are ugly. We are superficial. We are disillusioned. We are depressed. We are alcoholics. We are drug addicts. We don’t care. We try retail therapy. We try binge drinking. We try buying more. We numb our brain with TV, computers, sex, romance, music and more shopping. We try screaming. We try not giving a damn. We try to blind ourselves with the flag. We try to drink more. We are angry. We are sad. We can’t believe it . We hate life. We are hurt. We can’t go on. We go missing. We want to escape. We are chained. We are hypnotized by the TV telling us that we must be young, pretty/handsome, rich. People disappoint us. Politicians disappoint us. We laugh so as not to cry. That we must buy this car, this mobile, this hairstyle, this magazine. We try divorce, we try to be single, we try to suicide. We hate our friends and our families. We think the world sucks.

And it does. It really does.

The only way to stop it, is for you to stop it. The only way.

Stop the lies, the deceit, the hurt in your own soul. Turn off the TV. Use your internet time with thought instead of feeling ‘trapped’ by it. Its all up to you.

And I believe in the power of you. I believe it, because the alternative is too terrible for me contemplate. I am blind. Blinded by my faith in humanity. In its ability to grow and develop and learn from its mistakes.

And all it takes, is for you to believe too. And then, I am a we. And we, together, can make a difference.

Why are you talking?

I’m listening to conversations around me. Nobody seems to be listening. Everyone is just talking. What the point?

Do you talk to communicate your ideas, or just to hear your self speak?

If you talk to hear yourself speak, then you can stop reading here, cause I’m talking to the other group.

We talk to communicate an idea. And if we are open minded, we talk, so that someone can hear our ideas, and maybe give us feedback on what we’ve said. That, in other words, is a conversation of sorts.

Lets take a point I’ve just over heard.

Bob – I don’t like the penalties in Soccer.

Artie – Well, they have to decide somehow after the game, how to settle who the winner is.

Bob – Yeah, but I don’t like ‘em.

Artie – Yeah, well, I guess they are not [blah blah blah]

This is a trivial example, but it illustrates how we talk, and how we don’t listen.

Bob merely wants to state his opinion. He doesn’t want to hear about the whys or why nots. He just wants to say what he thinks. For Bob to open his mind to further information, he will first need his statement heard. So, Artie needs to say something like ‘Yes (affirmation that I have heard your opinion) many people don’t like the penalties in soccer. (slight pause)’ And now is the opportunity Artie has to say what he wants to say.
But if Artie wants Bob to hear, then he must first hear what Bob has said. Bob will feel validated, even if Artie doesn’t agree with him, and he will then be more willing to hear what Artie has to say.

Point is – figure out why you are taking. If its just to talk, then keep going – no one will stop you. But if you want to be heard, you will have to take into account the stuffing between the ears of the one you want to talk to.

Seth Godwin talks about knowing the brain you are talking to in ‘All marketers are liars’, if you want a bit more information. Its not the low down on communication skills, but its an informative book designed to get people thinking about what they are saying and who they are saying to.

Are Australians destined to be the world's next great thinkers?

The last few books I’ve picked up have been written by Australians. Although I might not agree with everything they say, I am impressed with the confidence/audacity of the way they present their ideas.

Then I read a book by Seth Godwin, and I thought, yes, but North Americans could also fit the profile I had begun to make of these independent thinkers.

Peter Singer, Morris West, Jeremy Griffeth and Seth Godin……

Just to name a few of these ‘thinkers’ who have impressed me lately.

They are what I have heard termed ‘ballsy’ and can be confrontational. They introduce topics that are thought provoking and marketable.

Why does their nationality have anything to do with their ideas?

Just speaking from an Australian point of view – and I will leave the North American’s out of my final thought – though you can feel free to add to my ideas in the comments – we are not tied up with traditions in the same way other cultures are.

We have a sense of new beginning and new ways of approaching problems. We are not hung up on traditions because many of us feel we don’t have a link to any history that means something to us. We are non-conformist and delight in shocking. I’m not saying this produces good ideas in itself, but it does provide a different breeding ground for ideas, doesn’t it?

We see things differently. We’re down under, so our vision is often skew if. We live life a bit rougher, a bit more outdoorsy and more down to earth than many other cultures. We don’t like to be tricked and we will stand up and fight about it. Now again, this doesn’t make a great thinker, but again, it does set up a new breeding ground for ideas.

In a previous post, I wrote about utilizing and training ‘broken’ teens to the positive for our society. I used the argument that they see things differently than others, so with some help and training, they can help us see things from a different point of view.

Its what we need. A new point of view. A new vision so we can make a real plan for the future of our planet. We’ve been following the ideas of progression and machinery and the mighty dollar and we don’t seem to be doing a great job.

Perhaps its time to start to look else where for our answers?

Just a thought.

Yoga is for new age hippies

Yoga outside of the first circle of the gyre.

This article is related to another post that you can read here.

Yoga is for new age hippies who are self deluded.

Yoga is a cop out for the disillusioned.

I have read these two descriptions of yoga in the past week and I believe it.

After the initial surprise of what I thought of as an attack upon me personally, I weighed the words and began to agree with what is in effect, a description of myself.

I am self deluded and I am disillusioned.

Yoga, for me, has been a way to protect myself from the society I was born into. A society where I was faced with lies, false values, selfishness, contradictions, deceit and told it was ‘just the way things work’.

Somebody the other day, after I asked their advice about how to deal with life as it is, told me to learn the weaknesses of my fellow man (woman and child) and ride it to the top of what ever I wanted for myself.

In otherworlds, manipulate your weaknesses for my benefit.

I have heard this advice more than once. I am usually disappointed and unhappy and go and practice some yoga to feel better.

This time I thought about it.

I came to the conclusion (for the present). I do use yoga as a bandaid for the hurts I feel in life. But, I thought of something else too.

If we just expand the idea of yoga a little further, then we have the ability, all of us, to turn the disillusion into illusion. Not only for ourelves, but for the world.

We are no longer ‘copping out’, but living the values we believe in.

How?

Yoga is about unity.

When we sit in our class, we are talking about unity of breath and movement. We are talking about the unity of mind and body. We can, if advanced, talk about unity with The Big Consciousness Out There Somewhere.

I am not saying this is wrong.

All I’m saying is that we need to expand our idea of unity to incorporate it into our daily life as well.

To live our yoga.

So we are not just using yoga as a way to heal our minds after being faced with consumerism and materialism and self focused values, but as a philosophy of life.

The united nations – The unity of nations. Not about making them all the same, but about finding the ‘common’ among them and discussing issues for all nations.

(let’s not discuss the failings as yet – lets just notice how many groups of people say the believe in yoga (unity), and how they do it, and gain insight and information about how this idea can continue.)

Community – Unity – That’s what we are suppose to belong to. A unity of our commons. Our society is based on the idea of yoga.

If we put our mind to unity – if we find a way to merge our commons, we grow strong.

We are no longer a ‘cop out’ – a disillusioned and deluded individual seeking solace from some eastern philosophy.

We are, instead, a strong voice (and $) behind our values of unity.

And practically, what does that mean?

Intelligent question. It means, in practical sense, put your money where your mouth is.

If you are going to be more than a fad yoga practitioner, then you need to do a little research.

I’ve added some links below for your perusal .

If we want to work together, then you need to talk. You need to leave comments, you need to involve yourself.

And that doesn’t mean you can miss your hatha yoga practice in the morning. The self just has to be involved in putting its philosophy into action in its wider gyre.

Friends of the Earth

Footprints Network

Oxfam International

World Vision - coffee article