Cultural diplomacy tutorial and RANT

This is another in my series regarding how to understand and achieve successful cultural diplomacy. Here I will explain to you things you must understand about how resistance, subversive and even “terroristic” organizations arise and important characteristics to keep in mind to achieve peace. I have Hamas in the Gaza strip in my mind as the specific case study, but will reference the wide range of groups in history who have been in a revolutionary or uprising role. The only group I want to reserve for separate consideration because they are totally unique is Al Qaeda.

The main point of this tutorial and case study will be to refute the modern assumptions by many, especially those in the western world, that a resistance, subversive or terrorist organization is a separate entity from the civilian population. All resistance, subversive and terrorist organizations arise from the populace; they are not “imposed” on an unwilling population nor are they “side by side” with the populace. Thus Israel and the United States are being deliberately dishonest to imply that Hamas is an organization that can be “rooted out” of the populace, like weeds being pulled from among good corn. Think of Hamas as corn with guns. The same is true of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of course the PLO, now Fatah, the legitimate government, before Fatah lost credibility. One would be more accurate to understand such organizations, with the exception of Al Qaeda, as being violent political parties that non-violent people also support or they would not be on the “ballot” of public opinion.

Look at the two historical examples of the American Revolution and the overthrow of the Czars by the Communists. It’s not like a bunch of people in what would become the United States imposed their will to revolt against England on top of the citizen populace. The delegates to the Congress from the states and then the men who fought in the armies all were drawn from and empowered by the people. Imagine if England thought that the Revolutionaries were a distinct group that they could “kill off” and then the desire for freedom would just die out in America. That would have been a huge military error one that, obviously, they did not make. The English understood very well that the civilian populace fueled and supported the revolution and were part of it, not a separate entity. Those of the civilians who disagreed with the Revolution either remained in place silently and accepted the tide of change, or left for England or Canada. Likewise in the former USSR, one must understand that the populace was behind and part of the Communists who overthrew the monarchy. The problem is that they didn’t know what they were bargaining for, how ruinous Communism would be for body and soul. But the excesses of the monarchy and their ignoring of the extreme and dire poverty of the people allowed the Bolsheviks to arise from among the populace, not as a superimposed force.

Another example is “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, the conflict between paramilitary Protestant Irish and paramilitary Catholic Irish. Again, right or wrong, it’s not like these groups fell out of the sky and imposed their will on the people. They were members of the populace who felt the need for resistance (Catholic minorities) and counter resistance (the ruling Protestants). That is why one simply could not “go in” and “jail or kill” every paramilitary IRA member, for example, without at the same time pursuing genuine diplomacy. Because these extremist organizations arise from and belong to the populace, one cannot EVER pursue a “sequential” process where “step one” is “stop the violence” and then step two as the “reward” is the diplomacy.

The United States is guilty of naïve and even stupid beliefs such as that. I cannot remember the last time we had “diplomats” who were actually even adequate in understanding the principles of diplomacy and the origins of revolutionary, subversive or terrorist movements. Israel knows darn well the difference but they have made a cultural decision to have a “backs against the wall” stance that insists on total “peace” before social injustice is addressed. Thus Israel is delighted at the naiveté of the past several generations of US “diplomats” who they view as public relations mouthpieces and “defensive” weapons suppliers. I mean, give me a break. Any diplomat worth his or her salt realizes that one cannot “wait” for a total “cease fire” before diplomacy while at the same time one side is turning up the heat of the social injustice that, genuine or perceived, is the result of the valid or invalid violence. It is like expecting a pit bull to stop biting while you are still hitting it with a stick. Israel knows full well that they have tightened the screws on the Palestinians to make their day to day economic life a misery and, in fact, a gulag and thus they continue to poke the pit bull while loudly screaming with feigned senses of grievance that “total peace” is needed before “diplomacy can begin.”

President Bush and his “expert on Russia,” Condoleezza Rice, have not earned one penny of their paychecks regarding the Middle East. What an embarrassment they have been.

Notice I have mixed examples of what people could say are “justifiable” revolution, subversion and while terrorism is never justified one must acknowledge that obviously someone thinks it is or they’d be home planting grape vines, with examples that obviously came to very unhappy fruition, such as the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Communism to power. You don’t “agree” with the people you are engaging in diplomacy with, for cripes sake. Golda Meir (the last Israeli leader that I think understood diplomacy) herself said that you negotiate with your enemies, not your friends. Diplomats should not be “step and fetch its” for one side in the diplomatic endeavor.

I mean, think about this slowly and carefully. In resolving a dispute, how reasonable and fair can that diplomat be if they are supplying one side with the weaponry? The idea of the USA being a diplomat in the Middle East problem is a joke and always has been. All the USA does is supply Israel with weapons and pats on the back. That’s fine if that is the foreign policy stance of the USA but what nerve they have to call themselves “partners in a peace process” and “diplomats.”

Europeans used to be very savvy about diplomacy, having centuries of genuine experience, and they used to laugh at Americans being clods and naïve. In turn, in fairness, Americans spotted the mote in the Europeans’ own diplomatic eye with their soft stance toward the grave and mortal dangers of Communism. But because the Americans were right about Communism, the Europeans shut up and just let it slide as the Americans make a mess of the Middle East. In turn the Americans think that they are foreign policy geniuses (for recognizing that Communism is bad, duh) and as a result have missed cultivating at least three generations of genuine diplomats.

There is another cultural problem with Americans. Because they have experienced over the past forty years the freakish forming of cults and criminal individuals or groups that are terrorists, they have done an unconscious and totally invalid pattern matching in their minds. Thus when America had domestic terrorists such as the SLA (the folks who kidnapped Patty Hearst back in the 60's) who are a few nuts who united for havoc, the lack of diplomatic savvy in the government resulted in Americans just assuming that all terrorists throughout the world are a loose coalition of "nuts" "imposing” terrorism on the populace. In other words, Americans have become so simplistic that they have only two models of understanding of armed resistance: a group of criminal nuts like the SLA from the 60's, or Al Qaeda from 2001. Americans seem to understand absolutely nothing in between which is where all the conflicts in the world actually reside, in that space in between.

Therefore, to summarize my points:

1) You cannot have a valid diplomatic role if you are supplying weaponry to one side, period. I mean, duh, how difficult is that to understand? Step aside and let real genuine neutral diplomats take over your "role."

2) We need genuine diplomats who understand cultural and historical contexts and who understand the actual diplomatic process and are not just “advocates with agendas for one side.”

3) All enduring organizations that are based on armed resistance are not separate from the populace and cannot be extracted from the populace.

4) There is no example of diplomacy where negotiation “waits” until “after” violence has “completely stopped,” particularly if the aggrieved side experiences continual pressure and provocation.

5) Do not say you are for “democracy” and “free elections” and then declare the winners “terrorists.” Hamas was elected into office, deal with it, not whine and try to kill them off while calling yourselves "pillars of democracy."

The diplomatic ignorance and willful collusion of the Americans in injustice in many forums around the world has been a source of excruciating embarrassment for me for decades now. We don’t have diplomats; we have empty suits with big egos who fly around like celebrities. It’s embarrassing.

Condolences re Shaikh Rashid Bin Ahmad Al Mualla

I wish to also offer my condolences for the passing of His Highness Shaikh Rashid Bin Ahmad Al Mualla, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Umm Al Quwain of the UAE (United Arab Emirates).



Reading about his accomplishments I feel that we shared many interests in common. My special condolences to his son, His Highness Shaikh Saud Bin Rashid Al Mualla. I am sure that he was much loved and will be missed, but his good accomplishments and concern for his family and his people will live on after him.

The untimely death of Jett Travolta

Many infants, children and young adults die every day, around the world, those who are known, and those who are nameless to all but those who loved them and to God. Therefore I do not normally comment about the passing of a child, but here I feel I must so that people can be strong and have faith and understanding again.

I am not speaking for God, but I am telling you what would be safe and respectful for you to believe. Young Jett would be in heaven, for his being raised without the faith is not a barrier to those who are too young or unable to find their own way to God. He would have been brought to God by his guardian angel, by other angels, and because as far as I can tell his mother could not be there, he would have been comforted in his injury and demise by the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose Motherhood of God and of all was just celebrated in the Church one day ago.

In heaven he would find himself among his own family, those grandparents or great grandparents, or as far back as necessary to find those who have achieved heaven in his family. He would thus be recognized as being with many maw-maws and paw-paws, and would not be frightened at all. His illness and infirmities would be gone and he won't even remember what it was like to have them. He would have new friends too, and I cannot help but keep thinking of Eric Clapton's young son being with him, "showing him the ropes of heaven," for some reason.

The Lord who he probably did not know much about on earth he knows very well and trusts with his whole heart from the get-go. As I said, he has nothing to regret and nothing to confess, and he has only comfort, love, light and wholeness that will last for eternity. He won't be "back" because there is no reincarnation, and eternal bliss is not taken away from anyone once it is given.

Adults who were not helpful to his well-being, both in health and spiritually, will have to answer to God, however, when it is their time of death, during their personal judgment. Know that and prepare, and not with excuses, but with penance and repentance. View being reunited with him when your natural time has come as your personal goal and it won't be so difficult, but things will be quite difficult if you do not repent and amend what you can while you yet live. There is no "But God, I didn't realize" that you can say once you have in actuality died.

While there is no food per se in heaven, since it is not needed, children are able to... how can I put this... experience a feast of those things they loved and enjoyed on earth, but in their equivalent in heaven, where everything is prepared "just for them." The poorest earthly child once in heaven and the wealthiest earthly child once in heaven are equally exalted and lavished in love that is personal to them. That is why some children have their pets in heaven, while others have the feelings that they had from their favorite activities, even if those activities are of the spirit and no longer the limitations of the actual and material. As soon as he arrived he felt that he was always there and by now has probably already shown other "newcomers" "the ropes."

I hope that this gives everyone who reads some comfort and guidance.

-marymajor

Correction about frozen embryo confusion

I have read that some very loving and well meaning Catholics have trouble with Catholic doctrine opposing the creation and use of human embryos. For example, these Catholics question why they should not "rescue" frozen embryos that were created for someone else's in vitro fertilization and is no longer needed, and thus are kept frozen indefinitely or discarded.

I think people need to be very clear about one thing before the dialogue (and disagreement) continues.

The Church is correct to state that frozen embryos have "dignity." This is a very precise word that does not imply they have a soul. As I've blogged about this before, but to re-summarize, a soul is created by God and given to an embryo at the moment that it is created and "quickens." This means that the embryo must be attached to the mother's womb and making its first cell division of life. God does not put souls in inanimate objects, such as a frozen embryo. The Church is very wise to use the term "dignity" because even though the frozen embryo is not yet living it is full of the potential for a human real life and thus it has the full dignity of its potential. As such it must be guarded as diligently as a living embryo. This is why the Church correctly opposes the existence of frozen embryos, regardless of the good intentions of the would-be parents. When one has a frozen embryo one has in uncommitted hands the full potential of a life with dignity. Fortunately God, in his wisdom, does not allow humans to play God and have souls placed in frozen inanimate potential humans.

Thus someone who "rescues" a frozen embryo cannot do so by justifying that the embryo has a frozen soul in there. Good grief, humans have already made a horror show of life, can you imagine if souls were actually "freezable" in embryos? Only humans can think of such a scenario, not God.

Having said that, even "without a soul" the embryo is entitled to full dignity because it, like all embryos, are a "promise" from God, a promise that a human life with soul comes into being if the embryo is unfrozen, implanted in a woman and quickens into life. If the embryo does not naturally take to the placenta and quicken then it never received the soul.

Thus I fully understand why the Church is discouraging the enabling of what they consider to be an initial wrong, the creation of a "just in case we ever want to use it" embryo that is frozen and thus robbed of its dignity, with a questionable but well intentioned intervention of adopting a frozen embryo and implanting it.

The Church is correctly concerned of two problems with frozen embryo adoption. One is that humans assume that they can invoke an embryo and a soul and freeze it, thus making people who are horrified at this scenario feel pressured to act to "rescue the frozen soul." That is science fiction, not reality. No souls are frozen in human embryos. So the Church is worried that frozen embryo rescuers have an erroneous and very painful and alarming view of the frozen embryo as not just having dignity, which it has, but a trapped frozen soul, which it does not.

The second problem the Church is concerned with is providing a moral escape hatch for an immoral practice. Thus instead of those who produce frozen embryos having the onus on them of doing something wrong, the faithful are felt that if they don't intervene with adoption that they are allowing a horror to continue (the embryo being frozen indefinitely or discarded). To use an example, the comedy magazine "National Lampoon" once had on the cover the photograph of a cute dog with a gun being held to its head, the caption reading "Buy this magazine or we will shoot this dog!" That was, obviously, an example of subversive humor, satire and irony rolled into one. This was a long time ago but I think I remember that in the inside of the magazine they had a photograph of the dog lying down with the caption, "We shot it anyway."

This is a trivial but wise in human understanding, this ironic humor from years ago, of how to "transfer guilt and complicity." It is one of Satan's favorite tools. It allows someone to initiate the sin and then force through guilt and good intentions someone else to take "moral" responsibility for "fixing" the original wrong and sin. The Church is correctly very alert and wise to this tool of Satan's, to transfer guilt from the guilty to the innocent.

Trust the judgment of the Church for they know well this device. Refuse to be the one who is "handed the guilt" of someone else's wrong doing, bad judgment or sin.

This is not to say that someone who adopts a frozen embryo and brings a child to term has now committed the sin of the people who created the frozen embryo in the first place. However, they have inadvertently provided moral "cover" to the people who did so, not in God's eyes, but in the secular world's eyes, thus removing impetus to re-evaluate and correct a moral problem such as frozen embryos. This is nothing new except in the subtlety of the temptation to take responsibility for "fixing" someone else's ongoing wrong.

This is an important distinction. You can fix a wrong or a sin that has happened and is completed. You cannot fix a wrong or a sin that is ongoing. The ongoing sin, wrong or error must be re-evaluated and corrected, not enabled by the just taking responsibility for perpetuation of the actions of the unjust.

For example, you would rescue a starving person and feed them. But you would not agree to allow a family to starve their child, and you visit once a week to give the child just enough food to keep on clinging to life. That is the difference between correcting a wrong and enabling a wrong. In such a scenario the abusers could argue that you agree that starvation of a child is acceptable, and that if the child dies it is your fault because you did not show up on time for the once a week giving of just enough sustenance for the child to continue to survive.

Listen to the Church, for she is wise in these ways of Satan and of weak and sinful humans. Do not accept responsibility for a wrong that is ongoing and if anything increasing.

I hope that you have found this helpful; this transfer of guilt from the unjust to the just is one of the fundamental moral crises of modern humanity and one must be wise and vigilant to not co-depend and enable error, bad judgment (even if "well intended") and ultimately sinfulness and lack of dignity throughout the whole process of life.

AND, no, I would not "feel different" about it if it were "my own embryos." If anything I would be more determined that they should be discarded since I have never given permission for my eggs to be kept and frozen, nor would I have ever given permission, nor would I have ever given permission for being part of a frozen embryo. Thus if anyone did that "behind my back" as the result of the surgeries I had, I would be the first to insist that they be respectfully discarded because the only reason someone does this type of thing behind someone's back is for occult reasons. I would never consider for one second having a "different" view of this matter and if anything, I would point to the grave moral peril that all who engage in these activities are in.

Human longevity and the end of times

I was reading on the web about the passing of Maria de Jesus in Portugal who was the oldest living person for the past several months http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_de_Jesus. I do not particularly research out and follow these supercentenarians, but I enjoy reading about them and honoring them when I do come across them in the news. I like reading about them, and recommend likewise, for three reasons: it is often the only time that the media and the public at large particularly honors the elderly, they are living witnesses to what life was like over the past hundred plus years, and they often provide straightforward and powerful witness to a simple yet full life. Maria de Jesus, for example, was married, widowed, with six children and worked the fields for seventy years. She could neither read nor write, yet no one can say she didn’t have a remarkable life that was full, and with peace of mind. The oldest supercentenarian is now a lady in California, an Afro-American, the daughter of slaves. How can we not all marvel at the lives of this wonderful group of supercentenarians?

While surfing the net to find a really nice photograph of de Jesus to keep in her memory, I came across what I think is the creepy part of interest in supercentenarians, and that promoted me to have to write a blog posting today, even though I was kind of at my leisure and taking a break! But when I see something that is a grave error, and especially if it is heretical, I am highly motivated to stop what I am doing and correct it. This is because people watch where I browse with interest, and I am concerned that just rolling my eyes or throwing up a little in my mouth when I read such stuff and just moving on will result in some assuming I do not object to what I have just seen. I can’t do that with every topic because the whole world is filled with lies and garbage, but I focus on those that provide, as you know, good case studies, or are of great urgency toward healthy human thinking and behavior.

Sure, everyone asks the supercentenarians what is the secret to their long lives, and that is great. Also, it is great that people study them (with dignity I hope) to have more insight regarding the medicine of geriatrics and how to prolong healthy human life. The creepy people are those who study them in the admitted belief that there is a way to never die. The creepy site I came across quoted a creepy doctor who actually has the nerve to quote one passage from God’s expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and claim two incredibly wrong and stupid things: 1) that use of the word “Us” means God is “admitting” there is “more than one of him” (um, read the Qur’an, moron… “Us” is used throughout as kings use it as the “imperial we” and also in reference to the immortal life of angels who abide in God) and 2) that somehow God is encouraging humans to learn how to never die and become “immortal” on earth. There’s just so much I can do about willful stupidity. However, I have had in mind a topic regarding the resurrection of the dead at the end of time so I decided to combine these two intentions here and now in this blogging.

The entire Bible and every book of faith or belief system is about two things: 1) the temporary nature of life and how to live with what one has with graciousness and goodness of heart and 2) preparation for reunion after death with the Divine. Even those traditional mainstream faiths who believe in reincarnation don’t think that it is a wonderful thing to keep “recycling” in a living body, and they teach how to break the cycle through detachment of the material and achieve nirvana in the spirit after a final death. There is absolutely no where in sacred writings, particularly not the Bible, the Torah nor the Qur’an, any notion that there exists a way to live forever. God is laughing at certain humans’ desire find such a nonexistent way, though he does so with loving sympathy, except for those who push an inflated and hubristic view on fellow humans that only accentuates their downfall of spirit and of body, eventually. God wants people to be physicians and healers, providers of food, water and shelter, educators, and protectors, so that all people can strive to live as healthy and as long a life as is possible. The author of one of the Gospels, St. Luke, was a physician. Jesus taught constantly to tend to the sick and the needy and the objective is obviously to remove their sorrow, and allow them to live as healthy and as long a life as possible. But the entire point of the Bible and the Qur’an is that humans are expected to do the best with what they have in the understanding that it will not last forever and that they should hope for mercy and bliss in union after death and within eternal life in God, just as the angels already have from their beginning of creation.

People who want to “live forever” generally have a few problems that obscures their sense of reasoning with this matter. One is that they tend not to be elderly themselves, so they do not have the internal perspective of one who has actually lived a long life. Thus these young or middle age men or women have a vision of a vibrant and healthy person full of keen interests and vitality living on and on and on. This theoretical and unrealistic image becomes overpowering in their mind of what reality is like and of how one changes one’s view of grasping onto life as one grows old. In many ways it seems that those people who are not highly motivated “Type A’s” and who have lived a long time, seeing births and deaths in their own family, and having a simple love and acceptance of that are actually the ones who live the longest and the most contented. The Bible teaches that one will lose what one holds the tightest grasp upon and life and death are like that too. Those who grow old often do so because they are not hiding from death, but instead are intimate to the cycle of life and death, often as peasant poor and farmers themselves. So people who envision living forever often have a movie running in their mind where they picture healthy and buff “Type A” personalities running around for all time “doing good.” That’s actually the opposite of what medical research and anecdotal observation reveals. Those who are the most intense about living a long time often die even before they retire, hmm?

This then leads us to the second problem with those who claim that there is a way to live “forever” and that this would be a good thing. That problem is that these people just do not understand love. Again, they have this script in their minds of buff eternal people with lots of friends, interests and good causes. But generation after generation of humans did not live only for themselves and what they want, but to make room in the world for their children and their great grandchildren. The love of the generations that come after you, including those that you don’t live to see, is part of healthy human outlook regarding the reality of life and death. No tree lives forever, nor does a polar bear or an eagle. Biology and the reality of life and death dictate that no living thing is eternal and thus plants and animals make way for the next generation even without having a sense of love and destiny. But it is the consolation of humans with the limited lifespan of all things that they are self aware enough to understand that all things pass with time, even the sun and the stars, and that out of them new life is born, life that they love here and now (their children and their children) and “in advance” for the future generations.

Related to this problem of these “researchers” not understanding love is that they do not understand the love of God and of a place that is much better than even the finest lifestyle can build among a theoretically eternal life span on earth. God has promised that one’s natural home, with him in heaven, is a far better place where one is reunited with loved ones and the saints, and where nothing ever is sad or tarnishes, or loses its beauty, glory and savor. There is nobody in heaven who would EVER come back to earthly life, nor could they even envision doing so. People in hell would come back if they could, ha, but you would not want them back, nor would you want them to live eternally either, but that’s another story. However, that is a useful aside to think about. What would you do with genuinely evil people, such as a Hitler, who like you could live forever? Do you become God and imprison him for eternity on earth, or kill him, justifying that he “lost” the right to the eternal death defying body that you yourself had provided through your research? Believe me, people have enough trouble determining fair sentencing guidelines for child abuses and armed robbers. Who would be “in charge” of sentencing to prison or executing people who like you could “live forever” and “not die?” Do you want non-God fearing people to be able to keep a person alive in a prison cell for a thousand years? Humans wish for very foolish things without thinking it through and viewing it through the lens of genuine human nature at all.

It is precisely because the faithful understand the incomprehensible bliss and reward of eternal life with God after death that these people understand that there are two types of love: love for fellow humans while alive, and the love that comes from residing within God for all eternity. Far from being “liberating,” the notion of eternal earthly life is enslaving in ways that the worst and bleakest science fiction novels could not fully portray. All earthly love dies at some point; who thinks that you can love another human being, even one’s own child, for two hundred, three hundred, a thousand years? Earthly love is a gift that like fruit has to be plucked and enjoyed at its prime, not as it’s been artificially preserved for one thousand years. To keep people alive indefinitely is to deprive them of eternal life that is within the unimaginable immensity that is God’s eternal embrace. Jesus told the disciples about a poor man who suffered much on earth, but now lies in the bosom of the Patriarch of all the monotheistic faiths, Abraham. A poor man who was a “nobody” on earth is now resting in the love of Abraham himself, in God’s presence. Why would someone imagine some thousand year old man web surfing and rocket flying until he just falls apart from lack of love as being some sort of worthy research objective? People are nuts, there is just no other way to put it. Can anyone sane imagine being kept alive indefinitely so that one cannot reach heaven by dying and achieving eternal bliss with God?

Thus God promises and delivers three things. God promises an earthly life that while filled with limitations and uncertainty, if filled with goodwill, love and charity by humans they can have much love, kindness, peace and prosperity. God promises judgment of the individual for his or her belief and his or her faithfulness to God, and his or her works, whereby upon death one is rewarded and achieves heaven or is condemned to hell. God promises at some point in the future that the world will pass away and that the dead shall resurrect for a final judgment. This means that God promises that there will be a new heaven and earth that is populated and brought to life by those who have earned it. Think of it as becoming shareholders in a new company that one cannot imagine now, but will be like the Garden of Eden without the flaw and the sin. No one can second guess how or when God will do this for after all Jesus stated that even he does not know when God intends to do this. If one does not know “when” one also cannot know “how.” For example, what will humans who died as babies be like? Will there be millions of living human souls in precocious and wise infant bodies? That is not likely. So people must trust God that it will be wonderful and one should certainly realize that if you can’t imagine what it will be like, you certainly can’t create your mini-eternal life on earth, forestalling both heaven and the passing of all and coming of the new world.

I mean, for crying out loud, you humans cannot even find a cure for people who suffer from distressing skin disorders such as psoriasis. Families cannot live in peace and goodness without abuse. Communities cannot rebuild after disasters, take care of their own poor, give hope to their young and fight crime. Wars cannot be fought without destroying more than they preserve. And yet some of you fantasize about “living forever” and even worse state that you think that this is “OK” with God?

The only people who lived for hundreds of years were some of the Patriarchs in Biblical times and that was for one simple reason. These individuals were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, not because it’s “theoretically possible to live forever.” God for his own reasons allowed a few to live an extraordinary number of years, including many centuries. If you insist on knowing a “reason” for God’s intention in this matter, you would be on safe ground to think in terms of a combination of their providing faith legacy through many generations (staying alive in order to maintain their future generations’ first hand knowledge of God when there was no writing and when oral history communication was still weak) and also that this was a backwash of residue of Spirit from when God was present in the Garden of Eden on earth. There was a superabundance of grace and the Spirit never just vanishes, no matter how much humans sin and err.

Here is something that I don’t think many people realize. The Apostles were very interested in the time the world would pass away and Jesus would have his Return in the Second Coming. It is almost as though they skip over in their minds their personal deaths and reward in heaven, so eager are they for life on earth with Jesus present. Modern readers misunderstand that keen interest of theirs, even reading into it a minimalization of their hopes and anticipation of heaven. First of all, that is not true, because if you read all that they have said and written they are very fixed on the hope of heaven when they individually die. But they are very curious and eager about the Second Coming and the end of time. Why is that? It is because as Jesus has often been called the new Adam, the one who fixed what was first broken by Adam and Eve, the Apostles were eager to see a world that was “fixed,” with Jesus in rulership. Remember that this was the hope of all Jews at the time, that the Messiah would bring honor and bliss of an earthly realm. The Apostles and disciples maintained their fervor to be part of correcting the wrongs that had been done by humans, starting in the Garden of Eden, and they realize that the Second Coming is when that will actually be achieved. Until then, no matter how great the faith and goodness of humans (and they know there’s a lot of area for improvement, as we see today), human life will always be flawed. They, knowing this, had a “wipe the slate clean” mindset, and had in their minds the image of the new, global Jerusalem as their belief, and eagerly awaited their own role in its creation. As true servants of Jesus Christ and of God, these men thought “past” their own heavenly reward at the end of life, eager to bring the new Garden of Eden, the New Jerusalem, into being with Jesus Christ and his Return. That is why there is so much about them asking Jesus about the end of times and even what seems like their hoping for its soon arrival. They were eager to be new “shareholders” in the new world of the bodily resurrected where humanity has a second chance and there is no sin.

But heaven is not gained by staying alive forever, and the New Jerusalem is not to be without first all humans passing away at the end of time, when God foresees and wills that it happens. If everyone ran around and killed each other off, it’s not like that makes God go, “Oh, OK, they’ve killed each other off so now it’s time to send Jesus back!” The end of time is when all things naturally pass away as they have now outlived their time. Sure, the weakness and the sin of humans have a part in being the “cause” of when it occurs, but humans are only a part of the larger plan. Humans certainly are not the button pushers and the promoters of how or when. Likewise, humans can try to “stay alive” individually forever, cutting off their own noses to spite their own faces, not believing in or desiring heaven, or fearing hell, and thinking that humans are emotionally and mentally fit to just go on and on and on. But they will never achieve that goal because life is life, it is a limited span and something will always arise to curtail it. I mean, look around you; young children and adults are killing themselves rather than even reaching the maturity of their years due to mental illness, drug use, disbelief, despair, ennui, and ego centric poor lifestyle choices and opportunities. Humans are limited; no living creature has the spirit to live a long time, certainly not “forever.” Biology also dictates that viruses and other agents will arise to attack human bodies who think they are “eternal.” Natural disasters do not cease, nor does the temptation to “control population” through abortion and other means. Humans are no more capable and able or emotionally fit to live forever than spider monkeys (and I like spider monkeys).

Even though this was not a Bible or Qur’an quoting blogging I hope that you have found this helpful. The biggest challenge that humans have today is to regain their perspective and balance, which they have lost in the most frightful ways in the past forty or so years. This is what I hoped to assist in with the writing of this particular blog posting. Have a good day and I hope that everyone has a New Years resolution that also includes promoting balance and sanity for themselves and others!

How to have a Christian spiritual meditation

Here I’m going to demonstrate for you how one can have a mystical contemplation of the Cross, one that is based on numbers. I have blogged much about how people misuse numbers and misuse spirituality, but use of the term misuse (as in using something improperly) implies that there are proper ways to do these things. I love meditation, mysticism and numbers! But I am very strict that they only be used in a God centered and spirit lifting way, not as props for human ego. So here is an exercise I’ve developed for you, an example of how one can meditate on the mysteries of Jesus Christ and the Cross, using numbers, in a God centered way.


With this meditation I am also making a second point. Protestants tend to not represent the body of Christ on the cross, while Catholics display and venerate the crucifixion, the cross with the body of Christ. This meditation will demonstrate that depictions are important and how a minimalist modern “progressive” use of the symbol actually curtails the richness of the meditative spiritual experience. In other words, this meditation unfolds but completes very quickly if one is only pondering the Cross without the corpus.


1 There is only one cross.
2 There are two axes of the cross, vertical and horizontal.
3 The one cross unites the ground and the sky.


At this point one rather runs out of meditation, since one is only contemplating the Cross without contemplating Christ. Here is how Catholic mystics would develop this meditation on the Cross that is the crucifixion.


1 There is only one Jesus Christ.

2 Jesus Christ and the wooden cross.

3 There are three nails.

4 Christ, the Cross, the ground and the sky.

5 The three nails, the lance piercing the side and the crown of thorns.

6 Three nails through three positions on Christ’s body, each hand and the combined feet.

7 Christ, the Cross, the ground, the sky and three nails affix them together.

8 The arms and legs of Christ and the four arms of the Cross.

9 Christ, nail and Cross three times.

10 Christ, nail and Cross three times, and the Cross is placed in the ground like a nail.

11 Christ, nail and Cross three times, the Cross is placed in the ground like a nail, and Christ’s gaze up to heaven.

12 Christ, nail and Cross three times, the Cross like a nail in the ground, Christ’s gaze up to heaven, and his Mother, from whose womb he was born, stands beside him.

13 Christ, nail and Cross three times, the Cross like a nail in the ground, Christ’s gaze up to heaven, his Mother who he emerged from beside him and John the Apostle that he loved stands beside him. (Later John will be the fastest Apostle to arrive running to the tomb of the resurrected Christ).

14 The seven last words of Christ, the three nails, the lance piecing the side and the crown of thorns, the ground and the sky, all bound together.

15 Christ, nail and Cross three times, the Cross like a nail in the ground, Christ’s gaze up to heaven, Mary his Mother, John the Apostle, and the two thieves crucified on either side of Christ.

16 Christ, nail and Cross three times, the Cross like a nail in the ground, Christ’s gaze up to heaven, Mary his Mother, John the Apostle, the two thieves crucified on either side of Christ, and the Temple on the horizon.

17 Christ, nail and Cross three times, the Cross like a nail in the ground, Christ’s gaze up to heaven, Mary his Mother, John the Apostle, the two thieves crucified on either side of Christ, the Temple on the horizon, and the city of Jerusalem.


You see? You can go on and find every number in this meditation of the crucified Christ, and all this does is to safely unfold more and more of the mystery and the glorification of God. This is the difference between focusing on numbers and becoming overly fascinated by them to the point of giving them a reality that does not exist, and using a love of numbers to glorify God and unfold a richness of a spiritual meditative experience and learning. That is also one of my objectives in developing this meditation, to help people who are "counters" and overly fascinated with the meaning of numbers to have a proactive way to restore balance. With this meditation you see that all numbers are located in the Crucifixion, and thus there are no good, bad, missing or controlling "numbers." Numbers or, rather, the ability to count are another gift from God to humans to make their day to day life easier, but also to use in spiritually uplifting ways that remain God focused, opening up greater understanding, spirituality and mysticism rather than binding and narrowing it down due to the slavery of superstitious thinking.


I hope that you use this meditation in your own devotions. Ponder it as I presented it, and then further develop it in your own unique way, always keeping the mind, heart and focus on the glory of God rather than the meditative tools themselves.

marymajor's New Year message

It's the first day of 2009 so I'm using a different font for this post, just for a little change of pace. I've also posted a photograph of one of my favorite flower arrangements (when it is not being posed against a white background it is sitting on a bureau in the living area next to my Christmas tree).

I want to speak to all of you, including those who are on different calendars, and so you have already had your own cultural New Year's Day, or it is yet to come.

I'm not one who pays very much attention to the calendars of humankind, even my own Gregorian calendar. Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is, unless I check the newspaper. I've always been like that because my philosophy about time is much different from everyone else's. Time is an important commodity, but the measurement of time is meaningless. What do I mean by that?

Time is golden, but it is not gold.

Time is very valuable as it is actually being lived, in the "here and now." Time wasted is never regained. However, once time moves from the present into the past, it has absolutely no relevance or value unless it was converted into something that was lasting.

For example, our society is obsessed with meaningful dates of joyous or sad events in the past. Let us use a birthday for example. But for most humans who lived, many of them as recently as the last century had no idea as to the calendar date of their own birthday. Birthdays were not observed or recorded in Biblical times, by either religious or pagans. One often did not know the actual year that one was born. The calendar is simply a tool for managing time as one is living it. Once time has been lived it has absolutely no further value unless it has been turned into something substantial and lasting, such as love, or wisdom.

US first President George Washington was one of the greatest men who ever lived, and we celebrate (or at least we used to) his birthday. But he was not great because of his birthday. His birthday gives us pause to remember his greatness. That is because Washington took the time that was given to him in his life and he converted it to activities that endured in the fight for and founding of this country. Suppose calendars didn't exist then, so what if Washington knew not what day he was born or any "date" for anything that he did as he fought for and created this country? Nothing would be different, because it is the deeds not the date that is important. The time that Washington lived was golden because he turned what he did into gold that has endured in its preciousness.

I'm not saying to abolish all calendars, though sometimes I am tempted. Instead, I wish that people would lose some of the neuroses that they have acquired about time and calendars. I first realized that many people have an unhealthy set of beliefs about calendars when I was "undercover" doing psychological work with a great cultist. Many things about me baffled her, but one in particular stands out. She could not understand two things. The first was that she could not understand why I seemed to have no interest in what we can broadly call "the past." Being a self admitted reincarnation believer (the New Age type, not the genuinely motivated traditional faith believers) she was obsessed with who "used to be" who and "what happened" in "past lives." New age reincarnation believers have a morbid fascination and thus a bondage worse than any slavery (since this bondage is voluntary and imaginary) to the past. So she thought I was an uninformed idiot for not obsessing about "past" events.

But who is the idiot, because the clue was right in front of her in the form of the second thing about me that baffled her. I have an intensely accurate and continuous awareness of where I am and where events occur regarding the cardinal directions of the earth: north, south, east and west. She marveled and was stymied to understand how I even have a total sense of direction in my dreams! For example, when I dream, I know where the dream action, such as it is, occurs in terms of the actual geographic orientation on earth. When I described a dream I could say, "Well, she was facing north and then people walked in an eastern direction until this that and the other thing happened." She had no idea why that was but the real sin was not to be curious enough to realize that I was not the fool in that duet.

Life and time is all about the here and now. It does not matter if it is your daughter's birthday, celebrating the day in the past that she was born, if you do not love her and you abuse her. If you have a daughter and you love her and have raised her to be a happy person with as much maturity and peace of mind as it is possible to have in this troubled world, then you have converted your golden time into "gold," and the date of her birth or any other calendar event is hardly relevant. You celebrate her graduation in June because she grew in joy and wisdom in school, not because it is happening on a particular human invented calendar date in June. I always know "where I am" and "what I am doing;" and that is why it manifests in my curious but simple to understand orientation on the real here and now earth in my real here and now life.

One thing that irks me about certain Christian denominations is that they use calendars to try to be "more correct" or more "accurate in the faith" than others, in actual competition. My goodness, people don't even know the actual date of Jesus' physical birth and yet some Christian denominations have false pride in being more "historically accurate" in their calendar. What makes me sad is that they have much more to be genuinely proud of, for example, the Orthodox who have preserved in their modern celebration so much of the old reverential ancient liturgy. Be proud of that; not in imaginary "accuracy" about dates from a time when people themselves barely knew what year they were born.

Notice the ancient Israelites kept careful calendars but not of the dates of individual people, but the dates of performance of their obligation to God. This is why I resonate with the Jewish calendar (though I don't pore over its pages, LOL, since I'm just not into calendars), because the faithful who follow the Jewish calendar are doing it for God, not for their own self congratulatory agendas.

Likewise my own church, the Catholic Church, has it right with its Liturgical Calendar. Through the year the Church celebrates the cycle of our faith. It is not the dates that is important, nor some sort of sense of "anniversary" repetition. It is, like the Jewish calendar, focus on God, and the great gift that he has given to us all in Jesus Christ. By celebrating through the Liturgical year we honor God and his prophets and saints, we remind ourselves of all that God has done for us, and we raise the young (and the new to the faith) up and draw them closer into immersion in the faith and the glory of God. I love the Liturgical Calendar of the Catholic Church. It is only diminished a little bit for me, though, as I have come to realize that cultists have through their own delusion "written themselves into Bible history" by actually thinking that they played a role in the times of the actual holy men and women who lived (once and only once) and who are now in heaven (not "reincarnated").

The Catholic Church has thus taken its two thousand year history and turned all of that time, good and bad, into gold. Not because the dates and the calendar pages were gold, but because the deeds that were accomplished, the words that were said, and the faith role models for salvation and charity were golden, and thus live on transformed into the gold of permanence generation after generation.

The five pillars of the Muslim faith are beautiful, not because they are five instead of four, or because the Prophet (PBUH) first performed his worship on a certain day in a certain calendar year, but because his golden example lives on as gold.

Calendars are important to know what date to show up with other people to celebrate God and life in its goodness, or to mourn the sad events as they happen, as they are part of life. But calendars are not tar pits that one must step into day after day and year after year in backward looking real or imaginary grief. As dangerous a tar pit is to look back on dates and events of a real past or an imaginary one and use it to puff up one's own inflated ego, cultivating hubris. Terrorists look back on real events in order to focus their outrage, which may or may not be justified, in unproductive and dark commemoration of wrongs or other terrorist events. Cultists continually look back on the past as "reasons" for "why" things are today, neglecting even the most fundamental use of logic and reasoning to deduce the actual reasons that people are the way they are. They would rather imagine they are reincarnated or imaginary descendants of Mary Magdalene than to recognize that, as the news reports today, there is an increased risk of mental disturbance among adults who were premature babies. They never look for rational reasons for problems; they always look for a way that they can insert themselves as heroes or anti-heroes into someone else's past.

So here we are, the first day or two of 2009. What does "New Year" mean? What does "2009" mean? All it means is whatever you have harvested of your time in 2008 and brought forward into genuine goodness that is "gold." Unfortunately, I think that due to lack of meaningful use of the golden time of 2008, there are now two reasons (the other being the secular economic crisis) that so many people are hurting with a lot less "gold" as 2009 begins. Try not to waste the time that you have each day. And remember, that does not mean a frenetic level of "productive" activity. Being quiet and appreciative of the goodness of life and God's mercy is not a waste of time.