When it comes to fireworks, I'm just not a fan. This year, for the first time since forever I gave into my son's curiousity and pleading and took him to see a big fireworks display. I was telling my friends I had to give up my own personal beliefs to do nice things for my son. They said - but why and I answered that if all the money from fireworks was gathered it could end world hunger. Even in this dinky little town, in a rural area spent $30K on their fireworks display. That's alot of money.
One of my friends said there were plenty of other things that bothered her more and I agree that there are plenty of things that bother me more too, but when I got to thinking about that, i realized that my refusal to participate in fireworks displays in anyway, is my own little managable protest.
It's like napkins. I heard once that if every American used just one less paper napkin per day, that millions of trees would be saved each year. Sure there are larger things that could happen - factories could stop chugging out nasty chemicalness. There are a ton of things like that - but what *I* can do, me, personally, is that I can stop using most paper goods.
The thing is - if we let the vast task we have before us blind us to the steps we have to take to change it, we will never take any steps. If I only wonder and grumble about all the bigger things tha can be done, it shields from my eyes the little things, and no matter what, little things add up to big things in the end. If millions of people do little things, it makes a big splash.
So if I refuse to participate in fireworks, it doens't change a whole lot, I know. The fireworks will still go on, but I have done a little thing by not buying any, and not buying into the scene. Maybe there are other people like me, it sure sounds like it when I hear people talk, and maybe all of us not buying any firecrackers and not buying into the scene DOES make a little difference.
That's enough for me for today. And each day I do SOMETHING, I am doing ANYTHING, I am contributing my mite. This is a powerful place and so different from the huge, grand "everything that needs to be done" that leaves me powerless and helpless to do anything.
One thing.
© 2009 Darshan F Jessop
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
I Ache for Love
Sometimes I ache for love so much
it's like a rhino
parked on my chest
or maybe it's a rhino
parked inside my chest
and wanting out
I honor those who have come before me
I release the abandonment
I release the betrayal
I honor the past completely and
now I ache for love
that has moved past
the hurts of yesterday
and is motivated to know tomorrow
I am tired of people
who make promises they won't keep
I am tired of people
who are afraid to love
I ache for love
but I ache for the lover
who is stronger
than anyone I've known
who knows courage
unfathomable
who is not afraid to love
it's like a rhino
parked on my chest
or maybe it's a rhino
parked inside my chest
and wanting out
I honor those who have come before me
I release the abandonment
I release the betrayal
I honor the past completely and
now I ache for love
that has moved past
the hurts of yesterday
and is motivated to know tomorrow
I am tired of people
who make promises they won't keep
I am tired of people
who are afraid to love
I ache for love
but I ache for the lover
who is stronger
than anyone I've known
who knows courage
unfathomable
who is not afraid to love
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Karma of the Bottom Line
Here's to the other side of me. There is nowhere where I show the parts of me that beg revelation. My thoughts, my opinions, strong or otherwise, I don't share so much, just what lessons I get out of them, the life lessons that I teach and blog about. And they are important, but sometimes, so is the process.
Banks. In the old days, banks were institutions which aided and helped people. They charged fees for this and the fees they charged enabled them to be in business. What happened? Greed happened and how sickening it is. I predict the downfall of anythnig and everything that is built to empires based on greed, lust, power struggles and banks are one of them. It is no wonder to me that banks are struggling the way they are. They completely fuck over the people they are meant to serve. Service has been replaced by the bottom line and what they don't seem to understand is that they are not mutually exclusive concepts. In fact, bottom line really only ever goes the miles when it is based on service.
All the industries that are failing, are failing because they are not operating from the place of service, they are operating from the place of mindless, egocentric profit making decisions. The US car industry? They are making cars that are LESS fuel efficient - look at the monsters on the road!! - and spending all their money trying to make you believe that your power, your value and your self-worth are tied up in "larger" and "more". They are spending their money to make you believe that new is the only better and that you are less than if you don't renew (buy a new car every 4 years) with sickening regularity. Why didn't they invest all that money into technologies that SAVE the consumer money? Why are they not investing in the technology they already own? Because they are not service organizations, and they have no real interest in the consumer except for what the consumer can do for them. Their only interest is their own bottom line and saving their own asses. That's called manipulation.
And banks are the same. Today I am sick with anger because of the way they are built and the way they operate. For years they trust you with credit and then their asses are in trouble and they turnaround and DOUBLE your interest - regardless of your spotless track record in paying them their due. That is sick. Their only objective is to suck money out of you. They are not even worthy of my contempt but I am contemptuous because banks are a part of life. I am contemptuous because American banks are self-serving, manipulative institutions that deserve the struggles they have brought upon themselves.
See - we think about karma and we think - of if you hit Jack, you will get hit back and that's karma. Karma is so much more. It works on this incredible micrscopic, cellular level that is almost unfathomable, but the underlying rpinciples touch everything in life. Entire organizations have as much (or more) karma than individuals. There is karma in products that we use, there is karma in words and thoughts, there is karma in the behavior of institutions. History does not alleviate the karma - it comes down to this - either you act out of fear, or you act out of love. Either you serve, or you cover your ass. The karma of service is kindness, enduring profit, legacy, goodness, happiness, joy, love, etc. The karma of fear, as in covering your own sorry ass, is failure, pain, sadness, downfall. There might be some profit, but profit reaped from fear has no value, it is too karmically taxed.
I don't know what these monsters of finance think. Do they believe when they are lying on their deathbed they will magically escape their own conscience? Do they think that the wealth they have amassed is going with them? Do they think they can escape the faces of those who were crushed and covered on the way? Do they really think they can get away with it? As in - their next life is going to be just more of the same, and they'll be born into the same families so they can now spend the fortunes they've amassed? Karma is karma. RAck it up and you have to pay it off. If there's not enough time in this life, there will undoubtedly be plenty in the next.
There there is the health industry which is just as sickening. When the bottom line for providing health care is profit, you have the same problem - lack of service. Service is exchanged for the bottom line. People's lives are exchanged for the bottom line. Do they really think there is no karma tied to this? Do they really think they can lie on their deathbeds free of conscience? Health care as it exists in the States today has to die and I believe it will be a painful death. All those moguls holding on for dear life to that bottom line profit margin and the billions that are meaningless against the face of death, and all because the piles of dollars are more important to them than human life.
Because here's the truth - if all those brains got together to look for human solutions - the world would not need to suffer hunger, many diseases could be wiped out, illiteracy could be obliterated, global warming could be halted in its footsteps, etc etc etc. The moment you seek to serve, you become the healer of the human plight. If all those moguls had any concern about anyone but themselves they have the brain power and the finesse to figure out worthy solutions. They could still charge for their services, just not to the detriment of anyone else.
When service replaces bottom line you have change the karmic outcome of the planet.
© 2009 Darshan F Jessop
Banks. In the old days, banks were institutions which aided and helped people. They charged fees for this and the fees they charged enabled them to be in business. What happened? Greed happened and how sickening it is. I predict the downfall of anythnig and everything that is built to empires based on greed, lust, power struggles and banks are one of them. It is no wonder to me that banks are struggling the way they are. They completely fuck over the people they are meant to serve. Service has been replaced by the bottom line and what they don't seem to understand is that they are not mutually exclusive concepts. In fact, bottom line really only ever goes the miles when it is based on service.
All the industries that are failing, are failing because they are not operating from the place of service, they are operating from the place of mindless, egocentric profit making decisions. The US car industry? They are making cars that are LESS fuel efficient - look at the monsters on the road!! - and spending all their money trying to make you believe that your power, your value and your self-worth are tied up in "larger" and "more". They are spending their money to make you believe that new is the only better and that you are less than if you don't renew (buy a new car every 4 years) with sickening regularity. Why didn't they invest all that money into technologies that SAVE the consumer money? Why are they not investing in the technology they already own? Because they are not service organizations, and they have no real interest in the consumer except for what the consumer can do for them. Their only interest is their own bottom line and saving their own asses. That's called manipulation.
And banks are the same. Today I am sick with anger because of the way they are built and the way they operate. For years they trust you with credit and then their asses are in trouble and they turnaround and DOUBLE your interest - regardless of your spotless track record in paying them their due. That is sick. Their only objective is to suck money out of you. They are not even worthy of my contempt but I am contemptuous because banks are a part of life. I am contemptuous because American banks are self-serving, manipulative institutions that deserve the struggles they have brought upon themselves.
See - we think about karma and we think - of if you hit Jack, you will get hit back and that's karma. Karma is so much more. It works on this incredible micrscopic, cellular level that is almost unfathomable, but the underlying rpinciples touch everything in life. Entire organizations have as much (or more) karma than individuals. There is karma in products that we use, there is karma in words and thoughts, there is karma in the behavior of institutions. History does not alleviate the karma - it comes down to this - either you act out of fear, or you act out of love. Either you serve, or you cover your ass. The karma of service is kindness, enduring profit, legacy, goodness, happiness, joy, love, etc. The karma of fear, as in covering your own sorry ass, is failure, pain, sadness, downfall. There might be some profit, but profit reaped from fear has no value, it is too karmically taxed.
I don't know what these monsters of finance think. Do they believe when they are lying on their deathbed they will magically escape their own conscience? Do they think that the wealth they have amassed is going with them? Do they think they can escape the faces of those who were crushed and covered on the way? Do they really think they can get away with it? As in - their next life is going to be just more of the same, and they'll be born into the same families so they can now spend the fortunes they've amassed? Karma is karma. RAck it up and you have to pay it off. If there's not enough time in this life, there will undoubtedly be plenty in the next.
There there is the health industry which is just as sickening. When the bottom line for providing health care is profit, you have the same problem - lack of service. Service is exchanged for the bottom line. People's lives are exchanged for the bottom line. Do they really think there is no karma tied to this? Do they really think they can lie on their deathbeds free of conscience? Health care as it exists in the States today has to die and I believe it will be a painful death. All those moguls holding on for dear life to that bottom line profit margin and the billions that are meaningless against the face of death, and all because the piles of dollars are more important to them than human life.
Because here's the truth - if all those brains got together to look for human solutions - the world would not need to suffer hunger, many diseases could be wiped out, illiteracy could be obliterated, global warming could be halted in its footsteps, etc etc etc. The moment you seek to serve, you become the healer of the human plight. If all those moguls had any concern about anyone but themselves they have the brain power and the finesse to figure out worthy solutions. They could still charge for their services, just not to the detriment of anyone else.
When service replaces bottom line you have change the karmic outcome of the planet.
© 2009 Darshan F Jessop
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