Learning the Ropes

I would bet that at one time or another you received an envelope in the mail labelled "Urgent", "Important Information", or something like that. When these items appear in my mailbox the first question I ask is; Important to whom?Not to me. But this brings up a point worth expanding upon: Importance. The Truth is that nothing in the world is important at all, save food, clothing, and shelter. I kid my friends by adding another "basic need": a good tan, but that's me! Anything else has an assigned value: one that is attached to it for a variety of reasons. I used to have a black luxury sedan that I fawned over, until I wrecked it. It always had a brilliant shine, whitewall tires immaculate: these things were inmportant because that car made up a significant part of my self image. I had a nice car, nice clothes, a fine watch; I was somebody! Don't believe me? Why, just look at all the stuff I have!The Treasury Department reports on economic conditions in this country; the key indicator in their analysis is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It's currently down and one reason given is that people aren't spending as much money as usual. Much of the GDP is comprised of consumer spending - getting stuff. And is there ever a lot of stuff to get; satellite TV, SUVs, cell phones, Ipods, Xboxes, and other such. This mania for buying stuff has led to high credit card debt, mortgages for homes a lot of people can't really afford, and other forms of debt. The savings rate among Americans is abysmal, most people live from pay check to pay check, and in most cases the money is already spent before it comes in. But that's Consumerism for you. A stable economy stands on two legs: Production and Consumption. When one leg is shorter than the other the economy stumbles, short enough and it falls. With all the outsourcing of jobs overseas and to Mexico, Latin America, and Haiti, the production component is at its weakest in years. That means that the Consumer is the target of such unprecedented attention that the mask has come off in some instances: Dow Jones money reports dealing with retail sales have stated the case clearly: getting the consumer to spend money. That's it! Just spend money - on anything, everything: therin lies the Urgency. Spending money is, well...patriotic!No. It's idiotic, the way we Americans do it. And there is a multi-billion dollar business out there geared to getting consumers to spend money: Advertizing. How many times have you heard a product being touted, the pitch closing with the offer to send you "free information"? What is that if not free advertsizing and promotional material? Send for this "free information" and your name goes on a list that's sold to marketing firms; then watch your snail- and e-mail boxes fill up! I don't bite but still get promotional (junk) mail. I must have gone wrong somewhere along the line.And it's nothing new. Highland Park is an island community near the heart of Dallas, Texas; it's where the well-to-do live. The zip code is 75205, possibly the most sought after in the United States when it comes to promtional material. I lived there, in a one-bedroom apartment; the junk mail I got was mostly from stock brokers, mutual funds, portfolio managers, financial advisors, and the like. I was a software developer and teacher at the time, comfortable, but not flush (or dumb) enough to invest in stocks, bonds, CDs, mutual funds, et al.. But I still got all this stuff because...my zip code was 75205.Targeted? What do you think? Everything's being "targeted" these days; notice? In Iraq and Afghanistan we are targeting "suspected" Al Qaida or Taliban enclaves and a lot of innocent people die. One would think we value our paranoid suspicions over the lives of our fellow beings on this insignificant mote of dust in the infinite universe. Is that the kind of world we want; to live in perpetual fear, to lash out at anyone who doesn't want to drink the water from our poisoned well? Richard Nixon had ann "enemies list"; remember? And whose names were on that list? Fellow Americans: political rivals, dissenters, and anyone else who threatened his royal ambitions. But that's history: "Get over it!"

The foregoing is a quote, the source is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in an interview that may still be on YouTube. The subject of the 2000 election came up and that's what Scalia said: "That's history, get over it." The Supreme Court usurped the electoral process, ordered the re-count of the disputed votes to stop, and appointed one of the most morally corrupt creatures on the face of the earth president of the United States. And we're supposed to "get over it"? How about we tell the Iraqis whose nation we have destroyed to just "get over it"? Chile? Hey, we made a boo-boo when we overthrew the democratically elected Allende administration and opened the way for seventeen years of terror and "disappearance" under Pinochet.Guys? Hey, look, get over it. Why don't we go to some grief counselling sesions and tell that to the folks there, people who have lost loved ones. Daughter raped and murdered? Get over it! I guess we just say that to everybody we've dealt with in our toxic foreign policy.

No wait! Israel! Remember the Holocaust? Er, maybe you don't as most of you weren't even born when that happened. But I'll bet you know something about it; at least you've heard about it, I'm sure. No? Well, the just visit a Holocaust Museum - and while you're there just tell the people running the place to get over it.It's history! If Justice Scalia thinks we should get over something that happened eight years ago, shouldn't we tell the Israelis to get over something that happened over SIXTY YEARS AGO to "get over it"? And it didn't happen only to Jews, this terrible experience they cling to so tenaciously; gypsies, slavs, homosexuals, the metally retarded, anyone who spoke against the regime, or were suspected of doing so. Sound familiar?

So, what is truly important? Are you happy? Are you secure? Do you feel worthwhile, loved? If not then turn off your electronic toys and get out into life. Surround yourself with the beauty of nature, find something that needs doing and do it, and above all be open to personal contact with your fellow men and women. Stop buying into the warped reality that the media presents to us with such urgency. You are so much more than your station in life, your credit score, or any of the other ways in which society measures us. You are not a sheep and Jesus wasn't the "good sheperd"; he was a Master of Life, and he tried to teach us how to live in peace, happiness, and contentment. He told us that the Father "who sees in secret will reward yu openly"; isn't that better than wiretapping, airport searches, Internet snooping, and all the rest of the devices that the paranoid, delusional cockroaches driven by fear and suspicion use? Is there any doubt about that?

I don't think so. Turn inward to your Father who awaits you, to do the works, and without which you are notihing. "Be still and know that I am God," says the little voice that speaks to us through our thoughts. "Be in the world, not of it." "Think not what you will eat or wear...the Father knows ye have need of these things." Do these simple things and you will find happiness.

At least, I suspect so.