Precious

Precious, defined conventionally according to Urban Dictionary, in part, as follows:

Something that means more to you than anyone could understand. It’s value and worth can’t be defined and you’d do anything to keep it. Beautiful and delicate.

Now, I understand. Something, someone worth more than can be defined. And that is the courageous young woman protrayed in Sapphire’s novel, Push, and now converted for a major motion picture, “Precious”. Not sure I like the entire definition linked hereto, we here at surface earth don’t like the word “obese”, it seems like a silly definition for those that weigh more than some others.

Regardless, I read the N.Y. Times Magazine article, “The Audacity of Precious“. The article asked if America was ready to hear this story, why, because it is true in many different ways and a large percentage of us walk by with eyes closed? Also, to be noted, a play on President Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope“. (Don’t get us started, at least for the moment, when people, news organizations, refer to our President as “Mr”. Come on, bitter grapes? He holds the highest office, can’t be that hard to address the gentleman as President.).

Is America ready to wake up? That’s what I wonder. I also wonder at my own perpetual sleep. Where was I, when Precious (fictional, but please, so many like her), was battling such odds? Where am I today and where is she?

We can sit and blame, point fingers, watch Fox News and hear supposed intellectuals scream at each other, but what happens as a result? Not much.

Aren’t we all part of the same web, the same consciousness, the same universal heart?

Should not my heart have broken when Precious or a young lady like her character lived through these moments? Should I not have been unable to breath as I was otherwise engaged in my daily living? If so, that would be conscious living, an inability to ignore when others suffer.

I am rambling my friends, but what are we doing? As a society, we should be able to do better at the beginning levels, if we see a child on the outside, jump in. Doesn’t mean we have to have an overreaching arm, it means in our moments involved, we don’t let a child sit in the back, we don’t let other kids in “our group” dis another, we don’t subscribe to it, we don’t breath it, we don’t allow it. In doing so, can’t we weave a safety net and pick up more than we would if our eyes were closed and we sat on our hands?

I had a hard time reading this book, almost put it down several times, but you know what? I struggled with reading the truth, the truth, I was not the one that had to endure living it.

Don’t give me any gods, any religious institutions, any walls or parameters where I can sit and ignore this happens to children who become adults and are ignored by their fellow man. Well not by all, read the book, there are those that ultimately, were not asleep at the wheel, and continue to be awake and pull the load for the rest of us.

May God bless them, and my I someday evolve to have 1/100 of the heart and courage of the young lady portrayed.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Author Sapphire, Humanity, New York Times, Precious, Push, Spirituality

Shattered Glass

I am the glass shattered
On a clear
Winter day
Appearing as ice
On an otherwise
Unbroken surface

I am the dove
Holding her sound
Against
The weight
Of the gray sky

I am the mountain
Beneath the sun
Holding the tendrils
Of winter
To not unleash
My power
Upon the plains

I am the air
You breath
Whether or not
You call me
She

*image credit: Adobe

Filed under: Blogroll, People, Philosophy, Thoughts, blogging , blog, Life, People, Philosophy, Poetry, Thoughts, words

Reads……

Here are two recommended “reads”.

Obviously, the world is chockful of books recommend to read, but today, I want to share two:

1. Half the Sky

Why? Because the book “is”.

How many times do you spend a moment asking what can I do? This book is replete with organizations we can help. The book is a must read, but as you go through, you can see what resonates, and choose what works for you. The only thing we ask is that you don’t think too much and you do jump in and act. Most of the time, we (me) are drawn to these stories because on some level, we know as we get ready for the day, wave at the yellow school bus, pack lunches, have meetings, have lunch, agree as to what is ever so important, there are things on invisible levels that are occurring and because we don’t see them does not mean they don’t exist. Again, jump in, this book provides more than enough avenues for us to help each other.

I reviewed the site for “Half the Sky”, I tried to capture the endorsements, Angelina Jolie, because we like her, despite society’s attempt to bring her down, I mean really, what’s the point? She’s real. George Clooney, and more importantly, sorry George, Greg Mortensen, the author of Three Cups of Tea, the story, the book that has rocked this nation and has made it REQUIRED reading in high schools. Short: the endorsements bear witness to the enormity of what they speak: EQUALITY, RESPECT, KINDNESS, COMPASSION, LOVE.

Is it really so hard to comprehend?

I throw down my hat, I am a litigation attorney in the U.S. that can only tell you this, aside from the ones we protect on humanitarian and civil liberty issues, the rest is garbage, the stuff we should be able to figure out ourselves, peaceably, without the use of middle-people. The day may come though, when enough voices raise, when we don’t need attorneys (including me) and we trust and care for one another.

2. Girl Mary, by Petru Popescu

…because he portrays Mary as a female, as a beating heart, as one heck of a contender.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Girl Mary, Greg Mortenson, Half the Sky, Humanitarian, Petru Popescu, Petru Pospescu]

Choking the Matrix

I think it’s time for a bit of a rambling post.

Let’s take two different and yet somehow related issues:

1. Streaks of misfortune; and
2. Decision to maybe stop reading/watching any mainstream media.

You may ask, as I did, what could these two things possibly have in common? Well, it’s a long meandering discussion, not quite a conclusion.

Let’s say for instance you believe, on what basis doesn’t matter, that the space around us is becoming choked with negativity.

The TV signals, the cable signals, the phone signals, the texting, the twitting tweeters, the emails, the blogs, the constant pouring out of media, media, media and advertisement into the vortex which surrounds. Do we really think it is invisible and without effect?

The signals pass by us when we are awake and asleep, passing geographical boundaries drawn on an ever changing map, passing gender boundaries, cultural and religious boundaries also. Passing over, intersecting, overlapping belief systems centuries old. Yet, we only think of it as communication. (What we can’t see, can’t hurt us, right?)

Yet, as I drive down the street, how do I not know that someone’s email transmission is hurtling straight through me and altering my own energetic path?

Whether we agree or don’t agree as to the form of negative thought, emotions, intent, etc., the reality is, negativity exists. If I hurt, I know it is true, because I feel it. If I am angry, I know it is true, because I feel it. If I am negative, I know it is true because I feel it. Yet, I don’t look for proof of it, I don’t require a statistical analysis, I don’t require to hold it in my hand, because I know it to be true.

So also do I know that the information we send through invisible networks is true. It appears on my t.v., it appears on my phone, it appears on my computer. Where then, is the substance?

Where do the moments of grief, sadness, anger, frustration, loss, negativity, the sum total of the mass of those emotions, reside? Do they all get delivered into the inbox? Does only a fraction of the emotion get delivered and part remain with the sender and the other diffused particles scatter catching others unaware, an unintended and unexpected blue moment? (p.s. never understood why we insult the word blue in such a way).

I think we are choking the air around us. When CNN or FoxNews blares, Alert! Alert! Alert! and then you find it is just another piece on Dave Letterman, you have to wonder, what are we receiving? 1. The intention to create sensation; and 2. the hopes and dreams of the staff that created the piece, bringing in their own liFe stories, needs, desires and frustrations; and 3. a willingness to disregard where else we maybe should be heading as society. That is a short list, but I ask you, where does the essence, the energy, of numbers 1, 2 and 3 land?

If I have a day, when the oven starts to malfunction, the washer broke, the windows are leaking and walls disintegrating and then the microwave inexplicitaly begins to smoke, do I say: 1. hmm, guess they are all at their life expectancy; or 2. I’m receiving some bad energy and need to re-balance? (Do we dare mention buying the microwave, bringing it home, only to find out it is defective? No, let’s just skip that for now.)

At the expense of sounding mad, I’m going with #2. There’s too much bad energy being drawn in.

I believe the air around us is becoming dense, the emotions we are flinging into the invisible realm are starting to reflect back, after all, even if we can’t see it, our words are going somewhere, they are disrupting and altering space on their travels, how can we possibly believe otherwise?

Filed under: Uncategorized , Collective Consciousness, Energy, HUMANTITY, Life, matrix, Thoughts

Zathura & Me

There is a particular scene in the movie, Zathura, that came as close as anything has to my mental wanderings of what it would be like if my soul and my human self were to meet each other in the same moment.

At the end of the film, the “older”, (I say that gently, older compared to an adolescent), male character that has been battling the forces with the children, reaches out and touches the one brother on the shoulder, his younger, shadow self.

I wonder, is that what it would be like? A fun house mirror reflection looking upon itself?

I’m afraid you will have to watch it to see what I mean….(actually, it is a wonderful film, so I take that back, I’m not afraid to recommend that at all.)

Filed under: Uncategorized , film, rambling, soul, thought, wonder, Writing, Zathura

Putting all that cash in perspective

With all the chatter in the media about Congress spending $500 Billion for this and $500 billion for that, we thought it worthwhile to put all that cash in perspective. I have held a few $20 bills in my hand, so I can imagine what a few hundred dollars would look like, or perhaps even one thousand dollars. But a million dollars? A billion dollars?

This is $10,000 in $100 bills.

Yes we know, it’s a thing of beauty. I considered using a stack of $20 bills, but it just didn’t resonate as well as the $100 bills. Besides which, for the demonstration that follows, this post would be 5 times as long.

This is $1 MILLION in $100 bills at the foot of say … one of the elected officials we sent to Washington DC. For perspective, this person is 6′ tall wearing size 12 sneakers (size is for comfort only). Any similarities that figure shares with Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced former governor of Illinois, is purely coincidental. Besides, Rod Blagojevich is only about 5′5″ and thus too short for this perspective.

That $1 million in $100 bills takes up about the same floor space as a pair of size 12 sneakers, so who in Washington DC is going to miss that?

This is $100 MILLION in $100 bills resting comfortably on a standard shipping pallet, sometimes also called a skid which, coincidently, is also a verb used informally to describe a downward path to ruin, poverty, or depravity.

The cube it forms is approximately 4 feet on all sides. It’s conceivable, however unlikely as it may be to you, that someone in Washington DC could actually NOT notice this amount of money missing. There are a lot of cube heads (a.k.a., block heads) in Congress “we the people” bless with the privilege of representing us so we are going out on a limb and say that even this amount of money may not be missed.

This is ONE BILLION DOLLARS in $100 bills resting comfortably on 10 standard shipping pallets or skids. At this point, the definition of the verb “skid” is beginning to resonate.

Even the block heads we send to Congress will admit that this is now “real money” and will need some help in moving it all about. If you are in Congress, needing help in moving anything about inevitably means some form of compromise or quid pro quo with some other Washington block head – a potentially very risky move, so it may be better to just punt. When you are elected to Congress, you punt a lot.

This is ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in $100 bills resting comfortably on 10,000 standard shipping pallets. The pallets are stacked two high.

The barely distinguishable tiny red spec on the bottom left of the image above is the same 6′ tall square head elected official with bad hair and size 12 sneakers he wears for comfort that we sent to Washington DC.

The current fiscal year ends on September 30th. Just nine months into this fiscal year, the federal deficit had topped ONE TRILLION DOLLARS – the first time that has happened. With one month to go, this year’s actual budget deficit, the net of outlays (spending) vs receipts (taxes) was 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS – FOR LESS THAN ONE YEAR!

-Surface Earth columnist: CB

Filed under: Bailout, News, Thoughts , Bernanke, congress, Current Events, News, Obama, Politics, Thoughts, treasury

Do No Harm

I reflected today on that simple phrase: Do No Harm.

I realized it would be a lottery ticket for the human race.

If we were to all adopt that mantra, breath and live it, we could re-balance the world.

I had been driving home from a meeting and was thinking of the state of the world. Thinking about the fact that ‘griping’ does little more than add more negativity (believe me, I can ‘gripe’) and I thought of the pure wisdom in the phrase ‘Do No Harm’. Instant winnings.

I of course digressed, suppose we strove to do the right thing only it turned out to be the wrong thing? Where would we go to find a point of reference? Again my mind turned to the phrase: ‘Do No Harm’.

I’m not trying to be redundant, it is occurring naturally. It is so very, very simple. We don’t have to worry about right or wrong if we follow those three little words.

I sometimes am dragged down, beyond my own bent for believing in the positive, and become saddened at the horrendous things that occur against humans, against animals, against the planet. How naive we can be to think we know much of anything. This whole limitless; yet, maybe self-repeating universe beyond us, what is it that we think we know? Can we truly believe we know anything as we sit and breath and live and laugh and love as even one human being, let alone, one child, goes harmed in the same moment?

I’m not much about division. I think that as I lift the fork to my mouth in celebration of a good meal, there is someone, somewhere, that cannot do the same, and to me, it makes no sense.

I find my comfort today in the words: Do No Harm.

If we all believed and lived this, I think, a lot of the ‘bad’ would take care of itself.

Now there are so many ways we could distort this, I don’t think you have the time or the patience for me to go through the variations, so I leave us with the simple import.

Blessings.

Filed under: Uncategorized , be well, blog, Collective Consciousness, Do No Harm, Humanity, Life, live, love, People, rant, writings

On Pinky and Rubicon

Can you choose your color today, or must others still do that for you? Can anyone of us with mixed heritage be predominantly called by just one name? What does that say about the heritage you choose (or is chosen for you), and the heritage not chosen? It appears to me that regardless of your standing in society, regardless of your accomplishments or natural talents, you must choose a color – or one will be chosen for you.

I wonder at that. In some ways, our nation has come a long way since Patricia ‘Pinky’ Johnson, in its day a very controversial film about a young black woman who passes for white.
“Pinky” was a slang term for light-skinned black Americans. We trust the term as used here is not offensive to anyone today as we are using same only as historical reference.

Lena Horne wanted to play the title role in this movie. Ms. Horne, among the most accomplished actresses and singers of all time, (awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk; Recording and Motion Pictures), was considered “light enough” to photograph “white” in the films of that time. However, that time was 1949 and 20th Century-Fox felt the movie would not show in most theaters (and for sure none in the South) since love scenes with a white actor were essential to the story. As a historical reference here as well, a “love scene” in the movies back then was an embrace or a kiss lasting more than a second (or about what you see Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed do in “It’s a Wonderful Life”). This was also the main reason she lost out on playing “Julie”, a role depicted for a “mulatto” woman in MGM’s 1951 remake of Show Boat.
In her autobiography, Ms Horne said she photographed so light that MGM was afraid people would mistake her for a white woman, so they had Max Factor (yes, the makeup legend himself) create a make-up line for her to “appear” as a black woman on screen with black men. For the films where the cast was white, MGM shot her scenes so they could be cut out when the films were shown in the South. Hey now, you don’t have to like every aspect of our history, but to ignore or deny any part of our history is simply foolish and only serves to condemn us all to repeat its mistakes in one fashion or another (e.g., Gay Rights).

Indeed, our nation has come a long way since the first showing of “Pinky”. The last US census showed that an increasing number of Americans identify themselves as “multiracial and mixed-race” when asked to identify their heritage and an increasing number is expected to choose so in the 2010 census. Nevertheless, customs and society norms, like any addiction, are difficult habits to break. The parents of our President are both white and black, yet the world, as does President Obama, describes himself only as a black man or an American of African decent. We are not attempting to diminish any of the reasons for this choice, but attempting to understand how a focus on “color” continues in 2009. For example, one of the readers of SurfaceEarth, C.Grego, recently commented that he was surprised to hear that CNN does not consider him a white man (he is Portuguese).

“I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.” Ms. Horne.

I believe we are long past that daydream now, and I hope Ms. Horne agrees. In regards to race, we have crossed the Rubicon. Sure, we can all turn around, look back and focus at the soiled and bloodied foot prints leading to the river, but cross it we have. It’s time to move on, and I wonder at that.

-Surface Earth columnist: CB

Filed under: CNN, Courage, Culture, Equality, Liberty, Portugal, President Obama, Thoughts, Truth, divinity, hope, inspirational, perception , CNN, color, Current Events, Humanity, Life, Obama, race, Rubicon, Thoughts

A Lion Passes

Senator Edward Kennedy (1932-2009)
[Photo Credit: AP]

In regards to civil rights, health, and the economic well-being of the average American, few elected officials anywhere have accomplished as much.

No real life is flawless, and his was no exception. The difference in Ted Kennedy was that he did not drown himself in self-pity, would not quit when many told him he should and his heart never stop beating for his passion. As a result of his passion, our nation and the treatment of its people by their government, is a far better place now then when he first arrived in the Senate 47 years ago.

-Surface Earth columnist: CB

Filed under: News, People, Thoughts , Current Events, Life, News, Ted Kennedy, Thoughts

Something is very wrong with this picture

“Throw in a few billion here and a few billion there, and before you know it, you are talking about real money…” . I don’t recall who first coined that phrase, (I think it was in the late ’80s), but when I first heard it, it was Millions not Billions!

America’s states are facing a projected budget shortfall of $165 billion for fiscal year 2010, the cumulative total projected through 2011 is estimated somewhere between $350 billion and $375 billion and that’s only if the unemployment rate flattens out and begins to drop by mid- 2010.

Economics 101: When states and local municipalities run out of cash to pay their bills, their options are: 1) anger working families [by raising the "jambalaya" of taxes they pay every day], 2) hurt the working poor and those unemployed [by cutting spending on essential services] or 3) just piss everyone off by doing both. When the federal government is short of cash, they can do the same things or just simply vote to print more cash – in Football, that is called a punt. When you are elected to Congress, you punt a lot.

As obscene as $165 billion of “real money” may sound to you, consider that the US tax payers gave $180 billion to bail out just one company, AIG, $13 billion of which went straight to pay AIG’s debt to another company, Goldman Sachs.
That’s right, for what we tossed just to AIG, we could have covered the budget shortfall of every state in the nation for 2010 and still have $15 billion to spend. Add in the $50 billion to another company (Citigroup) and $45 billion to another (Bank of America) and Goldman Sachs who received their own $10 billion tax payer toss, and we are on the path to ensuring that no state in the nation needs to cut vital services through 2011.

I know what you are thinking … “but we averted a global financial meltdown that would have resulted from the banks inability or fear to lend money (a.k.a., the credit freeze)”. Perhaps, but credit is as cold today as it was last Fall. And when was the last time you heard of anyone walking into a Goldman Sachs branch to get a home mortgage? [Hint: Never - Goldman Sachs, along with others, became a "bank" only after the TARP program was announced.]

Fed Chairman Bernanke, in his testimony to the House and Senate finance committees, used the recent recovery of the stock markets and the swelling bottom line of the large financial institutions (and by definition, their record bonus payouts) as a vindication of the Treasury and the Fed policies, and proof that they had averted a global financial disaster.

Perhaps, Bernanke also made clear that the prospects for improved employment, home values or even a decrease in home foreclosures, wasn’t likely for the next couple of years. He went on to say that “financial conditions remain stressed, and many households and businesses are finding credit difficult to obtain”…e.g., in spite of the massive amount of money the US taxpayers have tossed to the banks, the credit freeze remains.

Moody’s Economy.com predicts that 1.8 million borrowers will lose their homes this year, up from 1.4 million last year. I know what you are thinking … “but wasn’t that the reason we tossed out all those billions and billions of dollars (a.k.a., real money) to the banks?” Perhaps.Obviously, homeowners in or at risk of foreclosure are also not paying their local real estate taxes.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that 20 or more states have already made cuts to public health programs, programs for the elderly and disabled, and aid to K-12 education. Over 30 states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities. Across the nation, states have announced additional cuts to; health coverage to elderly and disable, school meals, homeless shelters, services to seniors, occupational therapy, Alzheimer services, drug assistance, mental health issues, legal services for foster children, K and Pre-K programs, and more. But all is not gloom, the Feb Chairman is correct; the stock market is indeed up and so are the Wall Street bonuses.

Something is very wrong with this picture, but you may have noticed there is not much “buzz” in the press these days about TARP money. The new “House” fire everyone in Washington is running to is the one where our nation’s first black president is being compared to a Nazi because of his health care policies. That one may take me a lifetime to figure out so I will do as Congress does and just punt.

-Surface Earth columnist: CB

Filed under: News, Thoughts , Bernanke, bonus, congress, Current Events, Economy, fed, foreclosure, Goldman Sachs, News, Obama, oppressed, poor, President, TARP, Thoughts, treasury, underdog