TODAY HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL DAYS OF MY LIFE!

It is cool outside! It´s softly raining!. Cloudy skies! Quiet rumors of cars slowly and carefully passing by!. Parents gone to work, vendors visiting our little commercial plaza, and children coming back, bused, from school!.

Why am I saying this has been one of the most wonderful days of my life?. The day started gloomy, the poems I was editing for my wife brought me gloomy memories, while sitting at my desk in front of my laptop, my faithful companion, these days. My spirit feeling an inner need to find the way to make a mark on things!.

With all this on the back of my mind, this morning I was wondering how I could leave a legacy so they will always remember, not only with love but with respect, the last phases of my life.

As is said in some of the poems I was editing, I have told, time and time again, that the only keys to a truly meaningful life are: truthfulness, integrity, forbearance and willingness to pay the price of dismissal, isolation or rejection by the systems. In other words, simply stated, selfness at all costs!.

But, sometimes is hard to keep on going on, when you see it applied to your own, and when you see that your ideals are considered not politically or viventially correct by the masses of today.

It is hard not to lose your peace when you see that loss and grief have torn apart the world we thought we knew, and that words never seem to be enough for things we can´t undo, as another of the poems said.

Then, after watching some documentaries on TV about the inconsistencies and intolerance between individuals when facing issues of race, the intellectual clouds began to lighten up, as we meditated upon what that wonderful woman poet of Maya Angelou had to say about human kind as a whole.

I cannot resist presenting, with pictures and songs, what she so profoundly and artfully expressed.


Human Family! .


Poem by Dr. Maya Angelou, read at the dedication of the Disney Millennium Village.

I note the obvious differences in the human family.
Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived as true profundity,
and others claim they really live the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, and delight,
brown and pink, and beige and purple, tan and blue, and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas and stopped in every land.
I've seen the wonders of the world, not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two, who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China, we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea, and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland, are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ, in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.



Because it is so stupid to believe that our particular group owns the earth and has the right to impose social control oriented mores, when they deviate from sound and fundamental principles of truth, rightfulness and real love and concern for one another.

And more stupid to bend over, just for the sake of accommodating ourselves

to a submissive way of living as the price to be left alone,

in peace, and not hurt, abused, or destroyed

by the rampant waves of the mediocre but audacious predators

that proliferate because of our weak and coward compromising.

That´s what I said to my son, who argued that what is going on has always gone on,

through the times and the ages,

with just the changes in names and scope of influence of the powerful of this world.

Because if we accept all this, we have to conclude we, as the human race,

do not deserve to live on this earth.

Then I went back to my computer to write and release my thoughts on its board,

checking my emails, and then, the gift of hope came through the internet waves,

as a message from my friends, telling that we have a purpose for our lives,

and that what we need is God in it,

as He needs us because of His love for us, His created ones.

Rejoice and meditate on the message. It can make your day one of the most wonderful days as it did with mine.


YOU NEEDED ME. I NEEDED YOU.

I cried a tear, you wiped it dry. I was confused, you cleared my mind.
I sold my soul; you bought it back for me,
and held me up and gave me dignity.
Somehow you needed me.

You gave me strength to stand alone, again.
To face the world out on my own again!
You put me high upon a pedestal.
So high that I could almost see eternity!
You needed me. You needed me.

And I can´t believe it´s you. I can´t believe it´s true.
I needed you and you were there.
And I´ll never leave; why should I leave?
I´d be a fool ´cause I finally found someone who really cares.

You held my hand when it was cold.
When I was lost you took me home.
You gave me hope when I was at the end,
and turned my lies back into truth, again!

You even called me friend.
You gave me strength to stand alone, again.
To face the world out on my own again!

You put me high upon a pedestal.
So high that I could almost see eternity!
You needed me. You needed me.

This gave me the strength to finish what I have started to write

and post in this blog what I visualized

as my potential legacy

after reaching the golden age of 72 well lived years.

I did choose to love and be faithful to what I believe was right and true.

I hope I had pointed out enough thoughts, enough times,

so we all have the opportunity to make a mark on things,

as said and hoped for in one of the poems I was editing today.

A series of messages to meditate upon! An introduction summary!

About a month ago I reached the age of 72. A full life, lived intensely, with many ups and downs, but with the unfailing and untiring support of my wife and children, who now zealously surround us with their love and care, in our retirement days.

The marriage wows of mutual love and support, in riches and poverty, health and sickness, have been a real thing in our lives. We have learnt the real value of the fundamental things needed to live.

Social, political and financial upheavals have rocked our boat and our children´s boats, but all this has brought more cohesion, mutual love, care, protection and support from one another. We have been and keep on being blessed, for sure.

Motivated by this already extensive, and long, journey through life and experience of all types, and as a gift of remembrances for myself, and a gift of memories to meditate upon, by all my friends and whoever could read these comments, I have prepared the postings down below.

Each one of them, by itself, is an encapsulated message. I have tried to turn them into a message that could be read one at a time, or in a sequence. A sequence that leads from a start of lived experiences, reflections and ruminated meditations, to an ending message of thanks and hope, and gratefulness to the Lord of the Lords of our lives.

I have tried to present the equation that causes and decisions have inevitable consequences. I have tried to present the human need for valid, idealistic but practical at the same time, values and parameters to abide to, and comply with.

Values and parameters so profoundly and sorrowfully ignored by our generations, from the top of the social ladders to the abysses of abuse, rejection and despair of the lower classes and the dispossesed, through the provoked exaltations of the vilest opportunism, greed and disregard of every fundamental value.

Even if by doing so, we are discriminated or rejected, or even worst, victimized by the ruthless moral midgets of today´s circles of political, social and financial power, that prey upon the misery of the less privileged and the dispossessed of this world.

Because the Lord said that His peace is not the peace as the world dreams it and understands it. Because we can enjoy life, even in the midst of the direst situations, that fade away when you have a God´s and family love to rest upon, and shield yourself from the most negative, and painful ups and downs of an extended life.

JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE

How are we supposed to live our lives? Are we just a fleeting second in the universal and unending time? Is it enough just to live the easiest way we can, avoiding unpleasantries, challenges, misunderstandings and defeats?

What´s more important? The pursuit of happiness on this earth? The outward success whatever the cost or compromising? Or the deepest understanding that we are here for something better, worthier, and significant than just going along, getting along?

Isn´t worthier purposing ourselves to make a difference, even if becomes apparent , and noticed, only, by us, and not by the surrounding world?


THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Sometimes this becomes possible, when retirement age comes around. Usually due to your own efforts and your planning. Other times as the result of raising up a solid family where the grown up children take care of their parents.

This becomes real when you recognize, accept and enjoy the simplicity and affordability of the easier, and slower, living within its parameters and limits.

AS TIME GOES BY

Love and family! Love that can start at the closest level of the individual towards him/herself and his/her family, and then expand to embrace, in wider circles, the whole societies and nature!

This is the only way to journey through life in a real and meaningful way. And then reach maturer phases with a wonderful baggage of memories and learnt lessons to leave behind for the benefit of the ones to come!

If we do we will be able to enjoy walking at a slower but sedater pace along the roads filled with beauty along its sidewalks, after reliving all the pleasant memories that in harmonious ways, return to you, to walk alongside in the most intimate communion with your fulfilled hopes and longings

MOON RIVER

We must always have in mind that we are journeying through a world of wonders, moons, rivers, beauties and circumstances, that frame and serve as the foundations of the remembrances of our past, that gave meaning and support to our present autumnal living.

And in doing so, we find that all the clouds past were inevitable incidents, as they already came and went, and that there is no better way to live but to extract from them the valuable lessons that enriched our passing through the different stages of life.

THE WINDOWS OF LIFE, AND PEACE AT THE END OF IT!

Now, safe and secure in the coziness of our homes we can serenely look out through the windows and encourage others to do the same by opening theirs and grasp and make their own the lessons learned while we were younger.

IN PEACE
We must face life, specially in its twilight, remembering that every beginning has an ending. Because by understanding it so, we can approach our twilights, with a sincere recognition to the goodnesses and blessings received, in peace with life, owing her anything and being owed nothing, too.


MALTIOX LOY, THANKS, LORD!

For making possible that we understand what real love and trust is. As individuals! As families! As community members! Respecting people and interacting with them as wholesome human beings

IMAGINE!

Sure we can, but climb beyond human imagination, pessimism and utopian unrealistic hopes!

Humans, per se, and without higher sensitivities, values and concerns will never go beyond the self-centeredness of today´s greed, manipulation and abuse.


GOVERNMENT OFFICERS AND BUREAUCRATS! ARE THEY IDEALISTS OR OPPORTUNISTS?

"You're a Government officer", says Bud. "Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?". "No guessing required." answered the cowboy.

"You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living, or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep. Now give me back my dog”.

Holy cow! This has been one of the best emails I have ever received, as it showed to me the dire contradiction of the scenarios of the leaders and the followers, the self labeled saviors of the nations and the wasted human debris of their societies.

Meanwhile the people, the people of the less developed but euphemistically labeled as “on the road to development of popular democracies”, impoverished, coarsened, dissociated with reality, drunkenly dance on the streets.

And the contradicting picture completes itself, because the drunkard dances, oblivious of his surroundings, while nearby school girls pirouette through the dilapidated streets and houses of every small village of their respective country.

That is the vivid image of the people, while the smarter ones enrich themselves with the spoils of the power exercised and power abused.


IF YOU CAN!

Some weeks ago, while sharing comments about the present international political conflicts and maneuvering, some of the responses were: What's new?

Countries are misunderstanding the meaning of democracy. We can attest to the fact that it is not enough to be elected. Democracy goes beyond elections. It is a lifestyle with true meaningful values.

Whether we like it or not: Things will not get better, they will get worse.

The final solution is the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. My final vote is for the Kingdom of God.

Recognizing the validity of these statements, I would like to add that we must give to our children the opportunity to have ways to understand what could and should be done to do our part so the miracles of God, derived from His undying love for every one of His creatures, may become not just a hope but a reality.

We must show them how, and lead them if we can. We must tell them what they can accomplish in life if they can…

And to all those who are doing their part to provide a glimpse of hope to the children of this world, as Fresh Air Fund does, praise the Lord! Check: http://freshairfund-news.com/

Blessed be, and keep on blessing, making the difference, to shame all those who prefer to stand in the balconies, without doing anything that could signify a daring, and uncomfortable decision to make.

Only by doing so we will be able to tell and proclaim, at the top of the mountains of life, experience and learnt wisdom: I give you thanks, Lord.

HOW WE WOULD LIKE OTHERS TO REMEMBER OUR JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE?

In my book, and I am sure in many other people´s book, some of the most fundamental questions, borne out of the deepest, and innerest, ineludible longings, are the following questions.

How am I supposed to live my life?. Am I just a fleeting second in the universal and unending time?. Is it enough just to live. the easiest way we can, with no meaning or purpose, just to avoid unpleasantries, challenges, misunderstandings and defeats?.

What´s more important? The pursuit of happiness on this earth? The outward success whatever the cost or compromising?. Or the deepest understanding that we are here for something better, worthier, and significant than just going along, getting along?. Isn´t worthier purposing ourselves to make a difference, even if becomes apparent , and noticed, only, by us, and not to the surrounding world?.

These questions came around, again, as they had come from time to time, while journeying through life. It was because of the attractive presentation, and the pleasant background music, of the following message that did reach me, through one of the innumerable email chains, that try to encourage and give support, to the otherwise disconcerted disconected, or dispirited, peoples.

JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE

If you cannot be the machinist,
be the most amenable
and easy going passenger!

Take the seat by the window, if you can!
Enjoy every scene, that times rolls on
while you watch, when journeying
with the pleasure of the first time traveler.

Do not be afraid of the cliffs and the abysse!
Care not for the curves,
that do not let you see what´s coming!
Or the roads that are waiting
just beyond them!

Try to enjoy the life´s journey,
watching every shrub, every stream,
every roadside,
and the scenery changing colors.

Spread open the road maps
and plot ways and routes.
Pay attention to every stop,
and watch out for the departures whistles.

And when deciding where your hopes leads you,
do not worry!
Place your dreams upon them!

May your life´s journey, be a first class,
and unforgettable one!

This was the core of the message, get the best of your life, draining out whatever and whenever you can get that may make your life more amenable, pleasurable and easy.

THE FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGE IN LIFE EVEN IF CONSIDERED AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Sometimes this becomes possible, when retirement age comes around. Usually due to your own efforts and your planning. Other times as the result of raising up a solid family where the grown up children take care of their parents.

It is a blessed reward. It is a time to rest, to visualize what it really was the core of the lessons imparted by our life experiences. A time to wonder, to ponder, to give back in advice what you did not have time to communicate before.

There are, still, Shangrilahs waiting for us when you really understand the real richness of life, filled with modern comfort, without need to recur to the external wealth or financial excentricities.

This becomes real when you recognize, accept and enjoy the simplicity and affordability of the easier, and slower, living within its parameters and limits.

Because it is still possible to live on first name basis with people who still possses, and preserve the fundamental values of friendship, priorities of life, and will to make a decent living without unnecessaryly overworking or overextending themselves.

It is amazing how life is able to blend dreams, challenges and purposes, with the amenities and the reconforting circumstances, that, as grown up men or women, spouses, societal actors and players, or audiences and witnesses, benefactors or benefited, conquerors or victirms, she leads you through, while journeying from the craddle to the grave.

There is no better example of this purpose filled, and purpose lived life, than the lyrics of what it was one of the most influential songs in my life:

THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM.


To dream the impossible dream!
To fight the unbeatable foe!

To bear with unbearable sorrow!
To run where the brave dare not go!

To right the unrightable wrong!
To be better far than you are!

To try when your arms are so weary!

This is my quest:
To follow that star, no matter how hopeless,
no matter how far.

To be willing to give when there is no more to give!

To be willing to die so that honor and justice may live!

And I know, if I´ll only be true
to this glorious quest,
that my heart will lie peaceful, and calm,when I´m laid to my rest.

The message and the song describe a beautiful and challenging way to live. A heartfelt and usually a painful way for those allowed living this way, me included.

Even if usually the end is to finish among the ranks of the fools and the dreamers who are considered and included in the losers of this world. But let´s not despair. The going on and the journey are not made only of sacrifice, disgust, suffering and defeat.

Life has a way to adorn and beautify our journey. As the flowers in the gardens, and the grass on the lawns that only need a little rain, wetting the unsightly roots from time to time, in order to bloom, and to adorn the walls of our homes!

Let´s take a peak down memory lane for us to rejoice and be comforted again, and for our descendants and future generations who may read these memories, to see that the harder the way the worthier the outcomes.

AS TIME GOES BY! Let´s take a LYRICAL AND MUSICALTRIP BACK DOWN MEMORY LANE!

As I have been repeatedly telling before, life is worthy to be lived, when the decision has been made to live it without compromising what you believe in, if these beliefs are founded on solid and rightful values, and premises.

Another recurrent reference concept has been that, as a member of an older generation, we found a lot of inspiration in the sedater melodies, and lyrics, of the songs that marked the passing of the years, and the changes of our generation.

I am honest when stating that the frenetic, even if rhythmically insistent, pace of the music of today, forces the acceleration of living and reacting, making more difficult to set up parameters for almost every aspect of the pace of the present generation.

It is also imperative to recognize that these generations are also greatly influenced by the lyrics and melodies, as we were in our days.

It is for this reason that I intend to refer myself through music, on this trip back down melody lanes, so I may find an understanding echo in any potential reader, and or listener, of these remembrances of mine.

I have pondered at times the apparent contradiction of today, especially in reference to the isolation, and the multiplication of the statements communicated through the internet waves.

It is so easy to call the attention, and become a jester, an entertainer, a seducer, a manipulator, of the grossest tendencies of the masses.

It is also easier to close ourselves to any intruding, and nagging stimulus of our conscience, by the invitations to pay attention to, to analyze, and hopefully, get valid, solid and fundamental conclusions, out of the also present and available calls to logic and responsibility, both at the individual as well as the societal levels.

Just a few days ago, I watched on TV a movie about how to manipulate your life with a mysterious remote control device, but inevitable pay the consequences.

It was an entertaining and at times, laughable tale, but at the end, when the main character recognized the stupidity, futility, and wrongness of his egotistical decisions, a fundamental truth came out.

And this save the day and made worthy the time spent, and overcame the whole banality of the movie, because some things fundamental were asserted. Love and family!.

Love that can start at the closest level of the individual towards him/herself and his/her family, and then expand to embrace, in wider circles, the whole societies and nature!.

This is the only way to journey through life in a real and meaningful way. And then reach maturer phases with a wonderful baggage of memories and learnt lessons to leave behind for the benefit of the ones to come!.

If we do we will be able to enjoy walking at a slower but sedater pace along the roads filled with beauty along its sidewalks, after reliving all the pleasant memories, that in harmonious ways, return to you, to walk alongside in the most intimate communion with your fulfilled hopes and longings.

As a gift for you all, enjoy the lyrics and the melodies that embody these memories of mine that I present to you in a sequence below.

AS TIME GOES BY

You must remember this:
A kiss is just a kiss;
a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply as time goes by.

And when two lovers woo they still say: I love you.
On that you can rely.
No matter what the future brings as time goes by.

Moonlight and love songs never out of date.
Hearts full of passion, jealousy, and hate.
Woman needs man and man must have his mate…
That no one can deny.

It’s still the same old story,
a fight for love and glory,
a case of “do or die”!
The world will always welcome lovers…
As time goes by!

MOON RIVER!

We must always have in mind

that we are journeying through a world of wonders,

moons, rivers, beauties and circumstances,

that frame, and serve as the foundations

of the remembrances of our past,

that gave meaning and support

to our present autumnal living.


MOON RIVER

Moon River, wider than a mile,

I´m crossin´ you in style, some day!

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker.

Wherever you´re going,

I´m going your way.

Two drifters, off to see the world!

There´s such a lot of world to see!

We´re after that same rainbow´s end,

waitin´ round the bend.

My huckleberry friend,

Moon River, and me!


And in doing so,

we find that all the clouds past were inevitable incidents,

as they already came and went,

and that there is no better way to live

but to extract from them the valuable lessons,

that enriched our passing

through the different stages of life.

THE WINDOWS OF LIFE, AND PEACE AT THE END OF IT!

Now, safe and secure in the coziness of our homes, we can serenely look out, through the windows, and encourage others to do the same, by opening theirs, and grasp and make their own the lessons we learned, while we were younger as they presently are.


THE WINDOWS OF LIFE!

Open your heart´s window and let your soul aerate itself!
The mold´s odor you smell is that of aged dreams

that you did not perceived before.
Let the winds of hopes and change carry them away!

Liberate yourself from the bitter leftover from pains and rancors.
Do a thorough cleaning of your heart´s window panes.
If you do so you will have a better view

of what goes on outside your closed “living in”.

Let light inundate everything, erase the dissapointments,

the sadness of failures,

and the vice of suffering for suffering´s sake!
And above everything else, allow the sun to thaw
the ice of solitude and loneliness.

Fall in love with a smile, and smile back in return!
Light up the windows of your eyes!

Draw to you the hummingbirds, the butterflies and the fireflies!
Love the person you see every morning on your mirrow!

Open all the windows of your longings spilling over dreams.
No one dreams in vain!

It is not true that dreams flee.
The people desist and it is then that they die!.

Reinforce your longings basing them upon firms foundations.
Build them up and day by day
Firm up your steps until you reach your rightful destination.

Do not allow darkening shadows,

nor winds constraining walls, or life silencing sounds.
Devise horizons beyond your windows,
enhancing the coloring of the available joyful circumstances.

Spread truth and righteousness,

encouraging words

and generous attitudes all around.

Surely someone will be rescued from the darkness of gullibility,

naiveté and deception.
And despair will become renewed hope,

because of your encouraging actions, deeds and doings.

Reestructure your beliefs, clarify misunderstandings,

correct mistakes,

and forgive what needs to be forgiven.

Recognize the persons´worthiness,

as well as what is most valuable in yourself.

Let´s realize and make it part of our life, that this attitude towards life will be the opening of our mind, emotions and spirit, to the realities of the world, in such a way that the potential for positive change becomes a feasible alternative, despite all the planned distortions and confusions, that pretend on taking us down the road to stagnation and submission.

IN PEACE

Because by understanding it so, we can approach our twilights, with a sincere recognition to the goodnesses and blessings received, in peace with life, owing her anything and being owed nothing, too.

Amado Nervo, the mexican poet, said it as it should be said: precise, concise, without unnecesary flourishings that hide the fundamental truths we should abide by, up to our last breath.

I bless you life as I get ready to leave you, because you never gave me failed hopes, unjust labors or unmerited sorrows.

Because at the end of my rough walking I see that I was the architect of my own fate and destiny.

And if I extracted honey or bile from occurences it was because I had firstly placed in them bile or honey; when I planted rosebushes I always harvested roses.

Certainly, my spring exuberance will be replaced by winter. But you never told me that May would last forever.

No doubt that I felt unending the nights of my sorrows. But you never promised me I would only have good ones.

And somehow I had some of them saintly unrrufled.

I loved. I was loved. The sun caressed my face.

Life, you owe me nothing!

Life, we are both in peace!

MALTIOX LOY, THANKS, LORD! The twilight sedate phase and stance of an honestly lived life.

We give you thanks, Lord, because you have given us time to enjoy the nights´quiet peacefulness.

Thanks for walking safer sidewalks watching flowers blossoming!. For the time to look out the windows and look at and enjoy the garden roses.

Thanks for witnessing life growing, life enduring, life loved and cared for. Time to walk around with no hurry to be on time for any business meeting, doing things at our own slower pace, with eyes open to the beauties of nature.

The world outside keeps on destroying itself, without really valid reasons, manipulating reasons, crushing down hopes, dreams and desires.

But there is still room for peaceful living, based on family values, and determination to build ourselves a future. Choosing a place to live and walk, unafraid, safe, unharmed, at any hour of the night.

Streets wide and clean showing the route to positive horizons. Watering with love and care the budding roses and young trees for a “hoped for” better future for us all.

We harbor, deep within, a desire and a dream, that what we enjoy could sprout and multiply all over the world, because we already live blessed, but unatached to the woes of the disposseded world.


Just some questions remain... about how we, then, should live. God reminds us in Mathews 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men”.

What our attitude should be towards the merciless speculators, and the worldwide violent outcry, and the desperate to grasp, whatever made available by the power avid, and cynical manipulators of the masses?.

Is life to be passive, lived safely and cozily closeted inside of our platitudes, and righteous detachment from the wickedest of the world?.

Was it that what was meant when saying that the ultimate goal is to be one of the remnant waiting to be spirited away by the Lord?.

IMAGINE! A SONG OF HUMANISTIC LONGING, UTOPIAN DREAMS AND UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS!

Imagine there's no Heaven. It's easy if you try.

No hell below us. Above us only sky.

Imagine all the people living for today.
Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do.

Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too.

Imagine all the people living life in peace.
You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can.

No need for greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man.

Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.

We can keep on dreaming,

as long as we base our expectations

on purely humanistic foundations.
It has been said, time and time again,

that man is a wolf against man.

A predator! A destroyer!

An egotistic, incapable of walking the extra mile

for the sake of real solidarity,

and mutual advantage and protection for all!

THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL!

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when, suddenly, a brand-new BMW advanced toward him, out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?" .

Bud looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answered, "Sure, Why not?" .

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location, which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area, in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man, then, opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database, through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet, with email on his Blackberry, and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud. He watches the young man select one of the animals, and looks on, with amusement, as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?" The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" .

"You're a Government Official", says Bud. "Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" .

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy.

"You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked..

You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter.

This is a herd of sheep. ... Now give me back my dog”.

Holy cow! This has been one of the best emails I have ever received, as it showed to me the dire contradiction of the scenarios of the leaders and the followers, the self labeled saviors of the nations and the wasted human debris of their societies.


It is so good to ponder on the outcome when the peoples decide at last to take their stand and face the smarter: “And the cowboy got his dog back. The dog that the senator thought was a calf”.


My goodness! We could extend the compliments to all the international bureaucracy that is messing, excuse me; I am sorry but I have to say it as it is…straightening up, wiping up, teaching, leading and discipling the world.

Meanwhile the people, the people of the less developed but euphemistically labeled as “on the road to development of popular democracies”, impoverished, coarsened, dissociated with reality, drunkenly dance on the streets.

And the contradicting picture completes itself, because the drunkard dances oblivious of his surroundings, while nearby the so called hopes of the future pirouette on school parades through the dilapidated streets and houses of every small village of their respective country.

The video may look mediocre, vulgar and coarse but that, unfortunately, sadly but true, is the foundation of the power seeking structures and methods of the opportunist leaders of today. Changing otherwise rational individual and societes into derrelicts and disociated ones.

That is the vivid image of the people, the people that so many local and international politicians and bureaucrats, who fill so many of well paid positions, pompously declare in the press and the international organizations’ meetings, that they, so sacrificially serve, while enriching themselves with the spoils of the power exercised and power abused.

WHAT´S NEW? WHAT CAN WE DO SO LATER WE CAN GIVE THANKS FOR THE CHANGE?

Some weeks ago, while sharing comments about the present international political conflicts, and maneuvering, specially related to the Central American country of Honduras, I made some questions about what the responses would be if that country were, as wealthy and powerful, as some of its detractors are.

I made them because I believe that the main concern is not democracy, but the precedent established, when constitutional powers, such as the local judiciary, the legislative and the electoral institutions, as well as the political party of the deposed government official, are and act against him, because of grave breaches of the constitutional restrictions.

Because manipulations of the constitutions are becoming the rule of the game of every one of these protesting government officials, who pompously rip their vests, and claim the most absolute outrage, because, as they cynically state, of the fear of proliferating political removals that could affect them.

And one of the responses was: What's new?

Let’s look at 2 Tim. 3 "There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power".

Tell me which of the protagonists in these political crises does not fit in that picture.

1. The U.S. for many years has taken Latin America for granted. Now is kind of "too late" to mend things.

2. The Latin American countries are misunderstanding the meaning of democracy. We can attest to the fact that it is not enough to be elected. Democracy goes beyond elections. It is a lifestyle with true meaningful values.

3. Whether we like it or not: Things will not get better, they will get worse.

4. The final solution is the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. My final vote is for the Kingdom of God.

In reference to the comments I would like to add, that we must give to our children the opportunity, to determine ways to understand, what could and should be done to do our part in the miracles of God, derived from His undying love for every one of His creatures.

We must show them how, and lead them, if we can, wherever we could be, however we could feel, whenever we could have the opportunity to do so, despite age, feelings, circumstances, rejection, isolation, dismissal or social discomfort.

Only by doing so we will be able, later on, to tell and proclaim at the top of the mountains of life, experience and learnt wisdom: I give you thanks, Lord.

Part 1. SOMEONE STANDS UP AND TELLS US WHAT TO DO.

I stated at the end a question and request at the end of my last posting, the one below this series and dated September 8th. 2009, labeled “SOME DISTURBING QUESTION MARKS”.

It was this question. It was this request… If someone has the rightful, real answer, please stand up and do what is needed to do.

It has always been said that there is no need to reinvent the iced water, and the childish lemonades, offered on shaky wood crates to passerbys.

It means that all the questions and all the answers are always around. Bob Dylan says it so wonderfully in his song “the answer is blowing in the wind”.

You only have to look around to find that the concern for social maladies, disturbances and distortions is universal. But, unfortunately, everything becomes agitation, shouts and protests, with no real action or decision to get rid of the afflictions and change.

Depending on the degree of awareness and sensitivity of the concerned ones, you will find all types of analysis, alternatives, propositions and intended solutions, presented by all types of unknown, but abundantly proliferating, experts in the social fields.

There is one common feeling amongst all. Lack, failure, distortion, manipulation, denial, misunderstanding, of love and bonding between humans, from the most intimate individual level to the international ones!

As you have already confirmed, I am a firm believer that music and its lyrics are some of the best ways to convey the best feeling, that, as humans, we give birth to, in order to get along, the best we can, down here, on earth.

Social maladies can assume any name, any type of manifestation, any kind of abuse, but in the end, all of them are just the implosion and the consequence of the grave misunderstanding of the concept of love and bonding, and its misguided actions.

And love, itself, as well as all love sufferers, love givers, love receivers, even God Himself, when seeing it lacking or manipulated, raise the voices of dissention, concern, protest and hope.

To make themselves heard with the hope that errors can be amended, distortions and distortionists are unmasked and placed in due isolation, in the place they rightfully deserve.

Am I that easy to forget?
They say you've found somebody new,
but that won't stop my loving you.
I just can't let you walk away;
forget the love I had for you.

Guess I could find somebody too,
but I don't want no one but you.
How could you leave without regret?
Am I that easy to forget?

Before you leave be sure you find
you want his love much more than mine.
Because I'll just say we've never met,
if I'm that easy to forget.

Before you leave be sure you find...

Unfortunately, human beings are stubbornly prone to stumble time and time again over the same rocky obstacles of life. And worst of all, perennially insist on rationalize their submissiveness or abuse.

But hope is the last to be lost before surrendering for good to the grave! And the messages and the messengers are there. Floating and blowing in the wind. All around and at the reach of anyone willing to grasps them and make them their own. From immemorial times to the day of today! For all types of believers, humanistic, Christians, or else.

The following messages apply to the subjects and ruled, as well as to the subjecters and manipulating rulers. Individually or collectively, for the case is just the same!

THE SOUL REVOLUTION

Aristótle, TheGreek Philosopher wrote this eternal text

“The Soul Revolution” in 360 B.C.

No one owns its own happiness,
so do not place your joy, your peace,
your life on anyone else hands.

We are free, We do not belong to anybody
and we cannot aspire to own other peoples desires,
wills or dreams whoever they could be.

The reason for your life is “Your Self”.

Your inner peace is the ultimate goal for your life,
so when feeling a void in your soul,
or when thinking you are missing something,
even if possesing everything,
turn your thoughts to your innerest desires
and look for the divinity within you.

Seek inside yourself the soothing answers.
You are the reflection of your daily thoughts.

Stop waiting for happiness without effort.
Stop exacting from others
what you have not yet conquered yourself.

”Greatness is not receiving honors,

but deserving them”

Part 2. THE UNIVERSAL CRY. PEACE! BUT... AT WHAT A COST?

As it has become evident through all my writings, one of the approaches I have taken is to hammer on the minds, the emotions and the spirits, by way of the repetitive reiteration of the concepts on dispute, or under analysis and challenge.

It is not a new technique. It has been used before, time and time again, but never with the intensity and manipulative emphasis of today.

It is possible because of the actual instantaneous access to the information. It is effective because of the ligthning impact of the media on the present generations.

Additionally, by doing this, and having in consideration the short span of attention of the run of the mill routine reader of today, there is a great probability that, as writers, we will have just one opportunity to impact this increasing type of reader.

What happens today is that once a comment is presented, accepted or rejected, the majority of the times, there will be no great interest in the reader to stay focused on the subject.

There is an increasing abhorrence, within these readers circles, to spend time reading chapter after chapter of anything on writing.

That´s why Facebook and Twitter are so popular today. Specially with the current format of piling up, at the top of the heap, the latest comment, which inevitably sends into oblivion even the last before the last sharing on any specific theme.

This usually place the focus on the immediate emotional impact, precluding the sedate, logical, sequential pace and development of the analysis and rising awareness, as it was the purpose of book writing in the past.

So, the usually and only availableone hit must be strong enough to knock, the reader´s apathy or passiveness, down.

There is an undeniable fact: the first step to submit people is to insensitize them to the violence required to doblegate their will.

It has never been so obvious this premeditated attitude. Wars have been fought since man left the caves in the primigenial ages.

But now the crudest and most explicit scenes of death, inflicted in the most sadical ways are instantly displayed and replayed time and time again.

This has become the insensitizing routine in the so called media newscasts that proclaim, with pompous and solemn voices, their compromise with keeping people informed.

Informed? Insensitized, let´s say it openly and be clear about.

Because insensitazing brings about crudeness, callousness, insatiable curiosity, and gloating over other peopes misfortunes.

And believe me, my friends, this is big business and a absorbing buying market of consciences, integrities and values.

Fortunately, sometimes the excesses bloat the spirits, and force them to cleanse themselves, by trying to escape from the imposed yokes of the social abuse and manipulation.

Usually, the children, and the elders who gradually has become, again, like children, are the ones who have the sensibility to grasp the needs and visualize the real context, extent and priorities of the issues.

And peace, real peace, becomes the fundamental issue. Not the passive submission, or the pavlovian reactions to the provoked emotional pitchs, which are probably the highest objectives of the manipulators of today.

Because peace involves everything that is fundamental for the human spirit. Righteousness! Integrity! Balance! Positivism! Commitment! Love given and received! Solidarity! Compassion!

Peace in the midst of confusion, struggle, confrontation, adversity,

pessimism and dispair!

Part 3. EHPHEMERAL LIFE… HOW WE COULD GIVE YOU MEANING?

This beautiful message has been present in the electronic mails circles for already an increasing lapse of time. It deserves to be widerly distributed, and let it be known by as many as possible.

It invites us to meditate on life, and, hopefully, to take action and make amends, if needed.

EPHEMERAL LIFE!

If we could realize how ephemeral our life is,

we could maybe think twice,

before ignoring the opportunities we have,

to be and to make, other people happy.

Many flowers are unnecessarily cut;

some while being still just buds.

There are seeds that never germinate,

and flowers that live a long life,

until petal after petal, fully lived,

surrender themselves to the winds of eternity.

But we do not know…

How to guess it? How to do it?
Or… what flowers were planted around?

And we neglect ourselves as well as others.

We let ourselves be sad and depressed

over little issues,

and we waste our scarce and valuable time.

We waste days, sometimes years.
We keep silent when we should talk,

and talk too much when we should be silent.

We do not give the hug asked by our heart

because something inside precludes us

from such a surrendering and sharing nearness.
We do not, tenderly, kiss because

“we are not used to do it”.

And we do not communicate what we like,

because we assume our partner or friend,

automatically, knows what we feel or desire.

And the night fades away, and the day comes;

the sun rises up and sets down over the horizon,

and we keep on being the same.

We demand, moan and complain,

because we do not have

or think we have not enough.

We demand, take on and collect

from others, from life, from ourselves,

and waste away comparing our life

with that of the others who have more than we.

If we tried to compare ourselves

with those who have much less...

that would make a great difference.

And time fades away.

We walk thru life but we do not live!
We just survive because

we do not know to do anything else.
Until, unexpectedly,

we remember to look back.
And we ponder and ask ourselves,

And now... What?

Now! Today! There is still time to rebuild

what we have messed up!

Time to give a friendly hug!

To say a tender and loving word!

To appreciate what we have!

We are never too old or too young

to be able to love!
To whisper a gentle word

or to have a gesture of compassion and love!

Do not look back!

What happened is already gone!
What we lost we lost it for sure.

Look forward, from now on!
There is still time to appreciate and love

the buds and flowers around us...
There is still time to give thanks to God

for this life, even if ephemeral,

that palpitates within us.

This is the message circulating and Christians have added a very appropriate music and additional response message background.

Im hope for it a wider circulation which would mean a wider concern and awareness. And the musical background is another powerful message, in its own category, that encompasses the longing and the hopes of so many. God will make a way!

God will make a way

where there seems to be no way.
He works in ways we cannot see.

He will make a way for me.

He will be my guide, hold me closely to His side.
With love and strength for each new day

He will make a way....

He will make a way.

God will make a way

where there seems to be no way.
He works in ways we cannot see

He will make a way for me.

He will be my guide,

hold me closely to His side.
With love and strength for each new day

He will make a way.

He will make a way.

Refrain:

By a roadway in the wilderness He'll lead me.
And rivers in the desert will I see.
Heaven and earth will fade

but His Word will still remain.

And He will do something new today.

Because what Christians believe,

in stronger ways than just a longing and hope,

is breaking the indifference or apathy, apart,

by communicating it to family, friends and foes alike,

as my friend Oren, so aptly says,

that…

GOD IS NOT IN THE LEAST BIT NEUTRAL!

I believe that our Father God’s domain and dominion is all reaching. And, I believe that God is not the least bit neutral about anything, at any time, in any place. He is either pleased or displeased. He is either joyful or angry.

Both our Father God’s pleasure and displeasure derive from His love. God is love. And, both His joy and anger with us derive from His love.

It is because He is always, at all times, in all cases, choosing the highest good for us, that He responds either with pleasure or displeasure, or joy or anger, with our choices.

He created us in His own image, both to be and do in accordance with His heart for us. The world, the flesh, and the devil oppose Him in us, by attacking us.

When we allow the world system, the flesh, or the devil to win over “Christ in us the hope of glory”, we displease and anger God.

When we allow “Christ in us the hope of glory” to win over the world system, our flesh, and therefore, the devil, He is pleased and joyful with us.

He, as our Father, desires us to seek His face only. All other directions are the world system, our flesh, and the devil. All good things are in His face. It pleases Him to give us the best.

The enemy (world, flesh, and devil) has come but for the kill, steal, and destroy. But “Christ in us the hope of glory” has come that we might have life, and that, more abundantly.

Seek His face! Fix your eyes on Jesus! Say with utter conviction: Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You, following You, my Lord! I won’t look to the left or right! My only hope is keeping You in my sight!

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Always remember where the only window in the ark of safety was located. It was in the top so that Noah would only view God and not be distressed by the distress of the flood around Him.

He and his family went through the same flood as the rest of the world but were on the top of the flood instead of under its destruction

We are “seated with Christ in heavenly places.” The “blood is on the doorposts of our homes.”

May we continue to please our Father God and bring joy to Him with even our most detailed choices!

Let us lead the way by humbling ourselves, praying, seeking His face, and turning from our wicked ways. He will hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land.

Thanks. Flying wings! Love, Dad.

Part 4. EACH ONE´S PART!

But… will just the conviction and hope will be enough?

Wouldn´t the ones who call the Christians “useful fools” keep on counting with the generalized situation of “all talking but no real action” that pervades the world?

Wouldn´t the tactic of interviewing and using the desire to get their quarter hour of fame keep on going as the communications diversionary routine?

Wouldn´t the so many, sprouting around, and so called experts on everything imaginable, keep on pontificating about every imaginary societal diagnosis, and utopian or biased alternative, and solution to the inaction, and permissiveness, seen and practiced all around?

Would that be what the God and Lord of Christians expect from His believers and followers, in order to make miracles arrive?

We should meditate on the following message. And then, make up our mind, make the appropriate decisions and do our part as our God, and Lord, is expecting us to do.

Each One´s Part, by Leticia Thompson

Why it comes so late sometimes? We do not understand!
We strongly believe and convinced we walk!

We kneel, bow down our heads and raise our spirit.
We know He has His time and we wait.
But we feel we wait too long.

We do not understand His Will and keep on asking. Insisting!

We get lost in questions and anxiously look for answers.

Why what we long for does not come if we believe in miracles?

If we strongly believe that we will lack nothing…


Maybe it could be that something is lacking: Our Part.


When we analyze the miracles done by Jesus, we see that sometimes He asked someone to do something.

The God who made manna come down from heaven to feed all the people,

couldn´t He simply say at the Cana´s wedding: Wine… Be!
But He asked to go and bring jars and fill them with water.


For the bread multiplication He used material

brought by a third person

and from it He realized the miracle.


Jesus does not act the same way with everyone.

Not because He makes distinctions,

but because He knows, exactly, what we need.

Then, while we stand still, nothing happens.
And why sometimes it happens so and other times it does not?
Because He knows our heart and knows He can count with us.

To pray is good! It gets us nearer to our Father!
But the prayer asks for “action”. To pray and act, to go,
to obey, to do something! But… What?
God answers, if we ask!


What it really matter is, for us, to be put and ready.
To be prepared and to be courageous enough to trust!


Who says that God is late or delayed?
He comes to us just at the right moment! It is for us to correspond, too, at that right moment!

And if by reading all that was written above you have forgotten

what originated these comments and prayers in the first place,

read again the comments, down

below, posted on August 27th. and September 8th., this year.

SOME DISTURBING QUESTION MARKS!

If television is observed with a careful analysis approach it is easy to determine what tendencies, hidden agendas, or subliminally covered practices, are being placed on the international awareness scenarios.

By doing so there is a great possibility to visualize what could be minimally labeled as disturbing question marks, to say it simply and concise.

A few days ago I watched another episode of the popular TV show “Law and Order” that brought a lot of intellectual and emotive commotion to the surface of my inner being.

It related the fate of a couple, divorce lawyers both, and the show started with the husband telling his wife, while going to bed, that they were doing what was right, and the world could well get rid of two, rocking the boat individuals (my words).

They were found dead, killed, very shortly after these assertions, by unknown persons, setting up the scenario for a description of a very disturbing social scenario, set up in a impoverished nation and certain wealthier, but abusive and insensitive, circles of another nation.

It is not that I do not want to mention by name Haiti and the United States as is done in the show. It is because what is described there, it applies, so aptly, to another social scenarios being, boldly, pharisaical, cynically, overwhelmingly, played at an international level at these precise moments.

Because this is what is being forced to swallow on behalf of an utopian, imaginary, distorted, notion of a socialist freedom which is not but another version of manipulation and deception.

As one of my friends, so bitterly commented, when sharing, with him, about the similarities of the show´s theme with the social aspects of the international turmoil and clashes, this has been going forever, through the ages.

His assessment was that abuse has always suffocated freedom, and has made slaves of the more numerous, but less endowed, by the lesser in numbers, but privileged, members of the elites by inheritance, or revolutionary social climbing and manipulation.

But let´s analyze the televised tale. A young impoverished boy bought and sold for almost pennies, under a false and pretended adoption by a wealthier family, supposedly moved by compassion and desires to give him a better place in society.

Aren’t our young and present generation being sold and bought for almost pennies of hope, crumbs of illusion of freedom and power, by so many wealthier or seeking wealth social agitators, supposedly moved by compassion, solidarity and mercy? And worst of all, feeling divinely appointed?

The triggering action of the drama? A little girl, used as leverage by a vengeful wife in a bitter and financially motivated divorce, who, besides having been sexually abused, then is discarded, sent back to his native country, disappearing into oblivion.

Isn´t that the fate of the less able to defend themselves, usually our women, after being abused? Isn´t that the fate after being used as useful fools after so many grandiloquent harangues, once the so called liberators conquer and consolidate their political and financial control and power?

And the drama unfolds itself. The investigation leads to another couple, who becomes the exploitation link, profiting out of the cheap buying and expensive selling of their miseries, even if by doing so condemn them to force slavery among the wealthier.

And the story goes on. Not only the couple keeps a boy as their modern slave but more than 16 other more. Even one tries to disguise their action by telling the police that what they have in their basement is a restless, noisy dog, and not a very young girl ironing their masters´ clothes.

Are not these sixteen couples a vivid example of the more than sixteen international bureaucracies, actively involved in the defense of the status quos, on behalf of pretended structures of democracy, progress and social well being?


And the drama burst up. The boy lies and defends his masters, just because they have given him a new bed that fills the small cat´s urine reeking cubicle under the stairs, after the investigation reaches their home.

Are not the children of the so called revolutions of today doing the same? Feeling happy because they have been given a cot to lie beside the foul smelling odors of their disoriented and squalid lives?


And the climax approaches. The young daughter girl of the house, and the mother who has lost all vestiges of womanhood sacrificed on the altar of personal comfort and convenience, try to justify what is becoming more and more evidently unjustifiable.

Is not that what all the traditional and revolutionary elites in every modern country do to preserve pretended rights and privileges? Even at the cost of trampling down those who, obligedly, serve them? Because in their twisted thinking is what needs to be done because the oppressed ones do not deserve any better?


And the climax explodes. The young girl was the one who led the slaved boy to kill the ones who really cared for the oppressed. And the system remands both of them to preventive incarceration.

And the difference in treatment becomes the crux of the dramatic tale. The boy justify the induced killing as the price to pay for his inner desire to be free, even a relative freedom bought at the price of slavering performing task and the murdering.

And the justice closes its ears. And the girls is treated fairly as a member of the ruling but the boy is forced to join the slave lines of the imprisoned scum of society.

And when the boy dispiritedly asks the detectives, more in an affirmative way that a question… do I have to go this way? so, will I never be free? The detectives just stay confounded, and evidently impotent, meekly answering: this is the way that the system works.

And I ask… do things have to be so?

Do we have to give up integrity and righteousness to prevent becoming part of the oppressed and the abused?

Is there no other way but submit to the social parasites of this world?

What you should do when this senseless chaos afflict your own?

Is the right thing to take refuge in the Christian concept of the remnant?

Is the cry for revenge and getting back on the part of the abused to be condemned, discouraged, prevented, especially when it has affected your own?

Are our younger ones condemned to become the thugs and the instrument of the new oppressors of their nation, family and friends, just to be discarded when they are no more useful to them?

Are we condemned to just stand by and sadly whisper that that is how the system works, as the detectives did?


If someone has the rightful, real answer, please stand up and do what is needed to do.