An Existential Christmas!

There is something to an existentialistic Christmas.




There is a beautiful, ornate, antiquity filled cathedral, originally built in the mid 1800's, on the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco named, Grace Cathedral. This grand structure holds Episcopal services daily, weekly, and holiday services that have over a thousand attend to a standing room only congregation. Their inlaid marble floor of the narthex section (seen above, from above) of the church has a labyrinth for all to do meditative walks throughout the year.

Last night, there was a Christmas eve service at midnight to which I attended. The congregation was packed more than I had seen in the varied years to which I attended past. Perhaps everyone is searching for something during this changing time as we meander through the labyrinth in our own lives.

The Very Rev. Alan Jones, Dean, attended to preach his last Christmas service, as he is retiring next month. To this news he received a long standing ovation for his service to the church and community over the years. I like to go to this specific service as I thoroughly enjoy the music at these and last night they pulled out all the stops with the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys performing, along with a full orchestra. Beautiful...

They put on a good show there. With such ornate and wonderful, peaceful surroundings and artistic art and tapestries, the incredible music, the incense and so much more...

Mr. Jones began his sermon last night by saying, "For those of you who have stopped going to church, maybe go this night every year, or every other year, or perhaps haven't been in thirty years, this is a night for you."

(I will go on with this paraphrasing, but be close to his point throughout.)

"This whole Christmas thing with the baby, and the virgin, and the middle eastern politics of that day...it's not real."

Okay, now you have my attention.

"What's real is the story. We need stories in our life. Stories to give us hope and insight. But, this guy Jesus, who came to save the world and was the son of God who came to save the world...it's not real.

"How many of you believe in fairies?" There was medium applause. "How many of you here believe in miracles?" There was larger applause. "That's pathetic!" A round of laughter through the nave from the humbled congregation.

This guy still has my attention.

"We are all going through things right now. Serious things that we have never experienced and never thought the world would again. The world, at nearly every turn looks as though it is falling to pieces. Foreclosures, joblessness, global poverty, a global slavery crisis, Darfur, Congo, wars, global warming, battle of sexual rights and freedoms, political transitions, and so much more. That is what is real!

"But, is that your life?

"What you continue to dwell and perceive as your life, will be your life. Are you doing what you want? Have you created the life you want for yourself. Are you playing the victim due to all of this global mayhem? Do you feel paralyzed to the circumstances that the world has laid upon you?

"For you, tonight, I say that the Christmas story is not real, but it is a story to show you that there is a power out there, much larger than yourselves, that has made a day that can be recognized for us all to be reborn. To save 'our world' we make on a daily basis. To save 'the life' we create on a daily basis to live and interact in this world around us.

"What the Christmas story shows us is that anyone can overcome whatever life throws at them. When there is no place to sleep, to lay your head, to get out of the cold,; whether you are poor or rich, a societal outcast, an executive or a laborer, we can overcome the perceived reigns of the rulers of the world to create the world we want for ourselves despite what is happening everywhere.

"We have a chance to be reborn again. To make ourselves new, with new ideas and new visions of what it is we want to create for ourselves in 'our lives'.

"This is what Christmas is about. The fact that whether you perceive the story as truth or not you have already agreed here that you believe in miracles. You are a miracle. Through this vast universe you were created like none other. You were created to make your claim upon this universe. You were given a shot to make whatever you wish for your life. You were born and can be reborn, through this Christmas spirit, to begin anew.

"Christmas is a celebration of life. The miracle of you. The chance to make the life you are wishing for in this world of chaos. The life you make will be based upon how you perceive your world.

"Our world needs these new lives to breathe new vision into it. That is what Christmas is. To take this time and breathe new life into your life and bore from that breathe a new vision for you life to create that vision for yourself. To make your world, that part of the larger world, the world and life that you want and yearn for.

"Merry Christmas to you all. Congratulations on your new birth. Take your new life and make your world the kind of world you want to live. Make your universe your own individualist universe that was given on this day just for you."

Nice...


"Merry Christmas to all!"




This, the 225th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!


(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs

The writing is on the wall...paper...

If we would simply slow down a bit we would be able to see the pieces of the puzzle playing out right in front of our eyes. On this Thanksgiving holiday, I am thankful for being able to see through the haze of deception and the smoke and mirrors.

For those that have not opened their eyes in quite a while it might behoove you to know that the world has a severe crisis on its hands and I'm not talking just about the economy. This was is in the nuclear arena. The North Koreans are selling their nuclear technology to anyone with the money to pay for it. This was discovered, ironically enough, when a white supremacist tried to buy the technology and bring it into the US for the big race war.

Now, with Obama going into office perhaps the country will be in a position to receive assistance from other countries instead of the turning away due to the Bush lies and deceit. It will take a bit of time to create the trust again. Since there were no weapons of mass destruction, and we invaded a sovereign country anyway, we have been hard pressed to find a country out there who gives a damn about us for quite some time. This was exemplified in the recent entry, "The Eyes Have It". That shows what the world thinks of our current lame duck. Now, and for quite some time, the world has been feeling that this lame duck is crying wolf for anything anymore. The world has watched as Bush turned away to their calls for environmental crisis solutions, aid to Darfur, and so many more...

Now, we have been hearing about pirates, and they are not in the Caribbean. This is happening today off the coast of Somalia.

So, is there writing on the wall? For the conspiracy theorist in me, I say yes. Just take a bit of time and think about it. Blackwater, just like Reagan and Oliver North were doing in the 80's, has created their own war to substantiate their future cash flow positions. On one side of the transaction they assist the pirate organizations to acquire the equipment they need for these acts, provide them training for the equipment and various weaponry, and strategies to the pirates in handling delicate hostile hostage situations. On the other side they create a need for a company like theirs to step in and act for the hard pressed American military. They are the international guns for hire. Blackwater secures more security work, receive commissions from the arms sales, and gives training and information to threatened countries and shipping companies. They stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars for this deceptive business tactic.

In a Nov. 24th article on the global news website Speigel Online - International we find just this taking place in front of our eyes. They write, "Blackwater is now receiving inquiries from dozens of new clients, mainly shipping companies and shipping insurance companies. All of them want the same thing: that Blackwater mercenaries guide their freighters and tankers safely past Somalia, through the world's most dangerous waters, the hunting grounds of bands of pirates armed with Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers, attacking anything that comes into their sights. In their flip-flops and inflatable plastic boats, they look more like small-time crooks, the sort hardly worth the effort of any coast guard vessel. And yet, in reality, these pirates are causing huge problems for the naval fleets of major powers -- and, of course, for the governments in places like Berlin, Paris and Washington."

Perhaps Blackwater will begin to help companies negotiate the ransom demands with these pirates in the future. This will become an added profit center for the firm as they conveniently orchestrate these multi-million dollar transfers.

Rather than the United Nations helping the Somali government get a better foothold on their country and assisting them with their crumbling economy, which would be getting to the root causes of this dilemma in the first place, they buy into the War, Inc. philosophy.

Perhaps, no one wants to see soldier's bodies dragged through the streets of Mogadishu again like back in 1994.

John Cusack released a movie this year, to which he co-wrote, produced and starred in, called "War, Inc." It is a dark political satire film directed by Joshua Seftel. The story is partly inspired by an article entitled "Baghdad Year Zero", from the famed writer of, "The Shock Doctrine", Naomi Klein. War, Inc. is an interesting film regarding just this type of scenario. A corporate firm orchestrates the arms deals, orchestrates the ransoms, orchestrates the battles, orchestrates the information to the press.

I feel that, as the Bush, Inc. administration has done in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater is now doing in Somalia and other areas around the world.

If you allow yourself to believe in the conspiracies or what people may think as the ridiculous you will soon find that it is not that but it is the obvious.


Have a great and safe holiday!



This, the 206th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!


(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs

Tommy Smothers still has it!!

For those that missed the posthumous award given to Tommy Smothers at this years Emmy awards I am including part of his speech. The prolific writer of comedy still has such a way with words:

“It’s hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there’s nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action,” he said, dedicating his award to “all people who feel compelled to speak out, and are not afraid to speak to power, and won’t shut up and refuse to be silenced.

Just one last thought, there’s one word that exists in every language on the face of the Earth, in every society from the time man began to speak and the word is “truth”. It exists in every language and it means exactly the same thing . . . . Truth - truth is what you get other people to believe.”

For a recap on my view of truth that I wrote in June, Click Here

The Iraqi Death Count

The number is shocking and sobering. I have recently included the small toll on the right column on this blog. I urge you to take the time to learn more through this organization on the horrors that the Repubican's have put this country, and our country through on this illegal invasion of this sovereign country.

For the accountability that Bush has continued to campaign for throughout his reign as ruler of this country, he and his cronies should be held accountable for the murders of these innocent Iraqi people, as well as, the murders of the Americans that went to fight in this illegal invasion. His premeditated actions should be prosecuted to the full extent of our laws as outlined in the book by Vincent Bugliosi, "The Prosecution of George W Bush for Murder".

It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.

That study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006. Iraqis have continued to be killed since then. The graphic above provides a rough daily update of this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. (See the complete explanation.)

The estimate that over a million Iraqis have died received independent confirmation from a prestigious British polling agency in September 2007. Opinion Research Business estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently since the US invasion.

This devastating human toll demands greater recognition. It eclipses the Rwandan genocide and our leaders are directly responsible. Little wonder they do not publicly cite it. Here is simple HTML code to post the counter to your website and help spread the word.



******
The following comes from the mission statement of this organization:

...We have seen through the Iraq war that unnecessary military actions can undermine civil liberties and democracy at home, and can be used to remove pressing domestic issues from the political agenda to the detriment of the great majority.

During the Cold War, the United States spent trillions of dollars on an arms race with the USSR, as well as wars such as Korea and Vietnam. Yet we were able to create Medicare, Medicaid, and enact large enough increases in Social Security to drive the poverty rate among the elderly down from 35 percent in 1959 to less than 12 percent by the end of the era. But for a number of reasons—fiscal, economic, and political—our current circumstances are very different.

For example, at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, the U.S. gross federal debt was 43.5 percent of our economy and falling. Today it is over 67 percent and rising. Maintaining our current foreign and military policy and possible large increases in military spending (for example if we have an arms race with China, whose economy will be larger than ours within a decade) will lead to serious declines in U.S. living standards.

U.S. foreign policy therefore threatens to impede—perhaps as never before—the country's economic and social progress. It has become extremely important to the lives of all Americans, and we cannot afford to leave it in the hands of the "experts" without influence from the public.

Eventually the United States must move towards a more multilateral approach to foreign relations—one that relies less on raw U.S. military and economic power and more on international law and treaties, co-operation, and diplomacy. Our goal is to accelerate this transition through education, organization, and mobilization of concerned citizens.

Where is Robin Hood and Little John?

In the days of old
when knights were bold
and the only currency was gold
the lord's, and the kings
with all of their rings
would buy up all of their things
for the cleavage filled breasts
to believe they were best
the wars were fought to the test
of testosterone
that made them all feel so alone
until they marched their way back home

Doug Boggs, 2008

From the top of my head...

I will continue to ponder what it takes to right the wrongs we have brought on ourselves. At this point, anyone in our time whom has witnesses these past 30-40 years I would think would begin to understand that war is not good government policy.
It does create good economics for the war mongers. Think of Halliberton, Bechtel, Blackwater, KBR, DynCorp International, L3 Communciations, Fluor Corp., Perini Corp., Tetra Tech, General Dynamics, and so many more. There is nothing wrong with a company trying to make a living, as this is capitalism. Although making a living by finding or creating wars that kill millions of innocent people and destroy an entire country's infrastructure is simply repeating what Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and others did. Our current administration has shown us that we simply have another leader trying to make society as a whole the way that they see it in their eyes.

In our ever changing (or is it) and shrinking world it would be best for the various governmental organizations to work together and bring societies and governments together. The past seven years have been dominated by an administration that is living in the past. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney truly feel that if they ruffle their feathers enough the people of the world will still think that Amerika is the all around global leader, as we have been since 1945.

Those days are over people, and there is NOTHING wrong with that. To know when to stand down and work to unite people makes a much better man, woman and human being than simply trying to instill ones own beliefs on others and shoving it down their throats.

We, as Americans, have had to be recipients of this wrath as well. The fear based propaganda wheels must stop turning. I just don't believe that God, the one that I know of, told Mr. Bush that he was to attack Iraq. This is preposterous. Is there more than one God? And even still what ever happened to our separation of church and state. Keep your politics political and your religion separate. This is why the Middle East has been in chaos for tens of centuries as that region has been ruled through a faction of religious political systems for eons.

Now, McCain is on the same track to keep things more of the same. This has got to stop!

It doesn't take but only a moment to stop and listen to the words of so many of the prophets such as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others that they are all saying the same things. I don't seem to remember that kill and destroy for the betterment of democracy, capitalism, and the dollar is any part of their messages...