For lack of a more in-depth musing today, I think I’ll go with a few short questions on random thought-provoking topics.

I do not agree with them all, but considering WHY you agree or disagree with the thoughts below can lead to some interesting revelations.  …. I hope

First, Dilbert creator Scott Adams ponders a future set of Rights that old people are allowed.  Namely, access to drugs and euthanasia.   Sadly, I see too many comments telling him he’s an idiot for making old people get killed, when I think his actual thought was to allow the Right to an assisted death, not forcing a certain age limit to undergo such things, especially in light of the numbers on HealthCare weighing heavily towards the elderly being expensive to upkeep.  Agree or Disagree? http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_extra_legal_age/

Second, After reading book 3 of the Twilight series (yes, I read it, and no, I am NOT a fanboi, but it’s humorous and entertaining while stuck night-shift at work) there’s one comment about the vampire boyfriend wanting to get married to the overly emotional girlfriend, and waiting to preserve her Virtue since his soul was eternally doomed (in his mind).  He carried older customs and Traditions on marriage and sex, but at 17 considers himself a man as would be true in his original timeframe. She is more accepting and modern in her views, and is hesitant to “marry fresh out of highschool”, but still wants some carnal adventures right now with the man she loves.    It made me wonder, Did the incidence of early marriage help foster a culture of deeper social bonding and compromise?  Getting stuck with someone at a younger age may have limited freedoms, but encouraged unselfish support and social networking much better than today’s carefree internet-fad swinging lifestyle?  Or is it just me starting to feel old-fashioned?

Thirdly, I wonder what would happen if the usual 9-5 workday was replaced with something more common in subtropical zones like Mexico, which involve a mid-day siesta.    I understand the reason for such a break in those climates is to avoid the hottest part of the day, and do manual work in the cooler morning/evening hours.   Still, would the break up of a long workday cause a drastic and unwanted drop in productivity, or would it actually increase productivity in the long term, by allowing a mental break and relief from daily stressors?    Would us  North American types simply fall into a pattern of even MORE long hours?  I think we would, in the short term.   But I think overall we’d adjust.       On a related topic, how would schooling and education have to change to deal with such a shift in schedule?!

Fourthly, That old question about woodchucks and chucking wood fails to be answerable in one immensely important detail.   When asking hte quantity of wood being chucked, and implying the successful ability of chucking for said woodchuck, what timeframe is used to determine an answer.   This unknown variable leads to a huge disparity in relative results.    Wonder why no one else caught such an obvious hole before now?!

…and with that, my night-shift brain has officially reached it’s limit of musing for today.

Back to a relatively normal routine next week.  See you on the flipside!

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Not much to report on the musing department lately, other than quite a lot of swirling half-thoughts that so far have failed to coalesce into something concrete enough to post here.   In a good way of course, which basically means life is pretty good and I’m enjoying it, without being inspired or stressed about any one particular topic.

This past weekend, we discovered the nearby green bean fields were being harvested, and set out with our bags to glean the leftovers for canning.  (See last year’s post here)  Quite a contrast, since the farm must have gotten better machines, or tuned them up, since there were remarkably little leaves/stems and other chaff beyond the main stalks of bare plants leftover in most places.  That I consider a bonus too, since it means much more efficient harvesting and less waste for us to pick up.

That being said, in just under 20 minutes of picking (quite a lot of which was where they apparently filled the trucks since there were lots of beans pre-picked in little piles) we managed to get enough collected to last us the entire days worth of effort in snapping, washing, and canning.

As of this morning, we have 14 pints, 17 quarts, and enough beans-in-a-bowl to do probably another 10-12 quarts.  The ones remaining, however, are the larger almost over-grown beans, and are being hulled for “dried beans”.  We’ll try to save some for an experimental crop next spring, but most will become stew-fodder.

It’s a bigger bounty, mainly due to more experience with canning, and better access to a pressure cooker to help process things.   As it stands, we were joking how we now have enough beans to eat one pint a week, for the entire year, not counting the dried/pickled ones getting processed over today and tomorrow.  Plus, there are two more fields unharvested yet, which we might just get some gleaning in with later this week for extra dried-beans.

My wife and I were feeling all self-sustainable last night.   Wonder why?

/rubs tired fingers  

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I’ve seen quite a number of blog posts and undercurrents on the topic of Ancestors, whether in relation to a Spiritual practice, or simply on some secular sources talking about genetics and healthcare.   There’s a LOT to muse about here, but I’ll put one thought out quick, before I forget it and get lost in Real Life again…

There are many methods of “Ancestor worship” depending on tradition and philosophy, drawn together in quite diverse ways in the African Diaspora religions and other tribal beliefs.   The interesting thing is that my own christian and elseways upbringing never really dealt with such topics.  Old dead people (no disrespect intended as I use the term here for context and connotation)  were remembered on holdays, maybe.

I had gone through a stage where I researched my own genetic amalgams and read quite a few very detailed sources on PA Dutch hex-craft, since I was in that region for much of my youth, and had practitioners in recent generations stretching back even further.   Still, I approached it more as a scholarly matter.  I didn’t quite grasp the Sacred.

More recently, with all this Ancestor blogging going on, plus some recent experiences myself, I decided to see about taking one day a week to think about who has gone before me.   I realized, quite unexpectedly, that I already had some pretty ingrained practices in my life that were a form of ancestor worship.  I just hadn’t called them Worship, and thought of them more as ‘fond memories’.

Most pointedly, my grandfather used to carry around a coin, and that I have been doing the same thing almost every day.  Mine’s a gold ‘Sacagawea‘ dollar and it’s showing no signs of becoming smooth yet. I also still to this day have a carved wooden man on my altar at home.   (wow, did I write “I remember” 2 years ago now?!!)  It has also become a sort of joke with my family that my winter and spring jackets are starting to fade and shred, yet I still wear them.  They were from my grandfather’s closet and I inherited them.  The thought of buying a new jacket seems almost insulting, since those still fit.

Beyond all this, one of my favorite quotes about Living Well, comes from Ms Amani (source needed) a woman I met once at Starwood 2002.  It reads “We are the Ancestors of the ones yet to be“, and has been one of the limited random quotes on the main Everthorn site since about 2003.

I’m not entirely sure on how to consider my other ancestors in other aspects of Sacred Lifestyle.  As others have mentioned, there were many who would cast me and my current belief system into the Lake of Fire.  Some genetic Ancestors may tend to shrug such efforts off as irrelevant (assuming their spirits keep the thoughts they had in life).   Yet still, I think a modicum of attention is a good thing, regardless of if it is received ‘properly.

Perhaps they all went to heaven and wouldn’t hear my thanks?  Perhaps they are still around and appreciate such thanks?   The truth is, we’ll never know, and I suppose there is no real harm in offering a few blessings and respectful energies tossed out to the unknown Ancestors.   In the worst case, it does nothing, and in the best, such energies may be accepted and returned a hundred-fold.

I think with this realization, I’ll take my coin and my charred wooden man, and my jackets, and expand the energy invested in them to include those folks I never met.   If my physics knowledge proves Energy is not created or destroyed, and merely changes form, then it is easy to follow that such energies are within us now, today.  Respecting the ancestors is, in a way, respecting ourselves, and those who we become the ancestors of.  Who wouldn’t want that in their lives?!

Thank you to my father’s family, who I know only through stories and half-remembered photographs as a child.  You made me.

Thank you to my mother’s family, who I do know, and love with all the foibles and facets of your lives. You made me.

Thank you to all the friends and family who passed on before I was born.  You made those who made me, and thus, made me in your own subtle way.

Thanks.

I hope I live up to such a Divine end-result for the next batch of worshipers after I cross over. 

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Sorry for yet another YouTube type post, but this was felt really, really important to me.

Last night, on the FOX show “So You Think You Can Dance”, which usually has lots of flashy entertaining routines, my wife and I broke down and cried.  Seriously.

The embedded video starts with a bit of lead-in to one particular routine that I believe gob-smacked everyone in the audience including the judges.  It’s one thing to say that Dance or any Art has the potential to move you, to affect your spirit, and emotions.  It’s another to see such beautiful chemistry in action.

There’s so much thought-provoking muse-worthy stuff bubbling under the surface every time I watch this (8 times now, not close to getting old), but the thing that jumps out at me the most strongly is “Abandon“.

For those suffering from disease or worry, reach out for help.  For those seeking to hide their pain inside to save the world around them, it’s OK to ask for a hug.

It’s ok to leap out across the stage, in total trust that someone will catch you.   To Embrace your power, and Abandon it all must be one of the most powerfully healing things I can imagine.

Watch the video below, and tell me you didn’t blink a few times.  It starts slower, but trust me, watch to the end of the routine.  (You can stop after the dance part if you want, the second half is the judges commentary)

http://www.examiner.com/x-12837-US-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m7d23-So-You-Think-you-Can-Dance-Breast-Cancer-video-with-Kate-Bush-and-Maxwell

Luckily, and thankfully, I never have had to deal personally with the topic of cancer, and may be guilty of glossing over the True Pain that such things bring to someone’s life and loved ones.   Still, that dance hurts to watch, if I think it only scratches the surface of the emotions Cancer brings, but in a strangely cathartic way.   It’s hauntingly beautiful.

I hope you agree.

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Replace “Island” with any number of Divinity/Spiritual/Love-inspired thoughts, and this sums up Life fairly well for me.

If Once You Have Slept On An Island

If once you have slept on an island
You’ll never be quite the same;
You may look as you looked the day before
And go by the same old name,

You may bustle about in street and shop
You may sit at home and sew,
But you’ll see blue water and wheeling gulls
Wherever your feet may go.

You may chat with the neighbors of this and that
And close to your fire keep,
But you’ll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell
And tides beat through your sleep.

Oh! you won’t know why and you can’t say how
Such a change upon you came,
But once you have slept on an island,
You’ll never be quite the same.

— Rachel Field

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Quick ranty muse today… Just returned from the Beach and still working on unpacking, getting caught up of stuff like laundry and job-workload here, plus a spontaneous new-moon celebration last night….

While at the beach, and even driving home, I’d been thinking a lot about our recent adventures at Drum and Splash, and the related re-boot of my spiritual practice.  While it’s easy to say “work sucks”, it’s settling in my head that the issue is deeper than just disliking my current job due to stress and workload.  It’s a lack of gratification at my job, or something akin to a revulsion of the entire structure of “corporate life”.   It just doesn’t make sense, in a soul-healthy way.

I love the actual work stuff, such as fixing computers for people, and troubleshooting tricky software glitches.  It’s the hoops and red tape that prevent us in certain ways from helping, or resolving root-causes in leu of approved work-around fixes that messes with my happiness.

I don’t get it, beyond “contractual bottom-line-thinking”, these alien processes and thoughts in the name of “customer support”.

It also made me think of something I read recently by Aquila ka Hecate, who was paraphrasing Terence McKenna: “It’s one thing” he said “To change your life to become kinder to your neighbours. It’s entirely another thing to change your life to become incomprehensible to ninety percent of humans.”

It’s as thought I put on a pair of fancy amber-tinted polarized glasses recently.  The greens of the garden, the blue of the sky, and the fog rolling in over the ocean were clearer and more vibrant the longer I look.  Back at home, my workplace was cheery and welcoming, even as my own desk seemed somehow apart from the row of cubicles it belongs to.  Perhaps, because it is Mine, that it stands out in my heart and inner-eye.  Perhaps it’s the little scrying-shell shrine and potted plants that make it slightly less sterile compared to the paper-strewn neighbors.

Whatever the reason, I’m finding it more difficult to talk to my boss about such things as procedures and protocol.  Even this morning, my co-worker and I were called in for 1-on-1 chats to ‘coach’ us on something we need to start doing that will cause us more work for arguably little benefit beyond extra record-keeping and productivity charts.  Both of us feel this new database, a glorified hourly punch-card, serves nothing beyond making sure the two of us share the workload evenly (and other offices do similarly).  I explained my thoughts that if the work is done, and we can’t be trusted to be a team ourselves, what does the manager do? Why create a database that collects information from our workorders that we ALREADY fill out with minutes and time-spent?   The reason,  we are contractors, and our parent company doesn’t use the workorder system we use, so they need an outside method of tracking our time?!?!

Things like that, I just don’t understand.

At the beach, we brought a lot of food to cook ourselves, in order to save money by not eating out each meal.   The grass-fed beef, the garden veggies, and even the store-bought sides were almost tastier than those from the nearby diner (which was also very good).

Lunch, was either burgers or BLT sandwiches.  Sadly, the comment was made about needing to get some more tomatoes from the store, as the ones we brought were irregularly shaped and smallish.  We used them anyway, secretly in the next batch of sandwiches, which were found to be just as yummy and delicious as the other batch. Likewise, the steaks and burgers were tasty Without adding a packet of pre-mixed spices to them before cooking.

Is the world so commercialized that folks can not see beyond the supermarket?

Now that I’ve got my glasses on, and my eyes open,  I fear for the sanity of the wilder world more and more.   No wonder people stand is streetcorners with sandwich-boards proclaiming the End Times.

It’s not ending, but it’s gonna change whether we are ready or not.   I hope there’s enough of us wearing polarized glasses to continue our  party as long as we can, and get our day in the sun. 

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Ok, I’ll admit, another sexy goddess. I mean no objectifying of you women readers.

Those who know me personally hopefully are aware that I’m not really one of “Those guys” who oggle the babes at the beach. Still, sexy dancing is a pretty sacred thing that shouldn’t be taboo either, from both genders.

This one is my favorite Shakira song to get the blood pumping, and groove started. Unfortunately, YouTube won’t embed the video, so I am linking it directly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-3brRCRsA8

One thing I like about Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is her humanitarian work and philanthropy. Beyond being an amazing songwriter, she helped create a foundation that improves the lives of Colombian children, is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and build a $6million school in her home town which former president Bill Clinton visited.

So, unlike many other music stars with their bling and hypersexualized stage personas, Shakira used her fame and talents to improve the world close to her.  Kudos!

…

Next time, I promise, no sexy goddesses of  song.  I’ll find a nice guy for all you female readers. 

And now to continue to use of “God” in the July musical treats,  here’s something utterly weird and awesome.

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Short post today, because I’d gotten called in to work the 3rd shift at work, and then crazy-busy today during the day.

Also, I am going to the beach (Barnegat Light, NJ) for a nice long weekend with my parents, sister and family, and grandmother.  Should be a nice “family reunion”, which I will return from on Tuesday the 21st.

In the meantime, enjoy these three literal translations of some songs.   They made me giggle. 

First is “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.

Next up, my favorite, A-Ha’s “Take on Me”.

Finally,  who can resist the sultry snarl of Billy Idol, in “White Wedding”.

enjoy!

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By the Goddess herself, Tori Amos.
(Forgive me the “guy moment”, but…Tori=Rawr!   Totally sexier than the blonde bunnies usually selling commercial products)

Need I say more, than this song rocks, and has such a good groove, regardless of the lyrics.

Watch more Under the Pink videos on AOL Video

Also, for more Tori Amos: I also like this groove (Sorta Faierytale…)

Discuss?

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Every now and then, you stumble across something that cheers up your day, and makes the hum-drum ponderings that fill your head get swept aside for more cheery thoughts.   Aren’t those great?

This weekend, we were rather busy, and still had not fully unpacked from last weekend’s Drum and Splash campout.  One reason is the fact we are leaving on Thursday to meet my parents, grandmother, and sister (+ family) at the beach for a 4-day vacation on Long Beach Island, NJ.

So Saturday and Sunday, we mowed the lawn (partially), ran errands (most of them), got materials to enclose our back deck into a sun-room porch, and did the dishes.   The table was still stacked with the sort of things that get piled up on “an available horizontal surface!”, and the laundry was half-folded near the suitcases.  I’m sure you homeowners know the look.   Cluttered.

We had a friend over for dinner, plus my mother-in-law for her birthday, and found myself spending the half hour before they arrived worredly glancing around the yard, shoving table-stuff into a box for sorting “later”, and lamenting the fact the back of the house still looked like crap where the siding came off in a windstorm.

Meanwhile, my son and I were picking a few quarts of blackberries, and he wanted to swim in his pool, and the dog followed us around with her frisbee to get thrown.

Then, today, I read the following from Sharon Astyk.

And some of it truly could be a lot prettier than it is – we could stack the wood faster, we could cut the grass more often – it is just that doing that would come out of something else.  Right now the wood is sitting where it is because, well, we haven’t gotten to it yet – I’ve been making the cherries into cherry jam instead.  I can make beauty blossom on the shelves in my kitchen as red jars fill the shelves – but only at the price of the rathole look out on the driveway .

This put everything in perspective.   Instead of seeing the half-mowed yard, I thought of the basket of berries we had just set in the kitchen for dessert tonight.   Instead of the ramshackle siding, I thought of the nearby pile of lumber and screening that will replace it next week.   And the stuff on the table?  It will get sorted out, next rainy day or cloudy evening.

Our place may look unkept at a glance, but there’s a lot going on under the surface.   Within the towering grass is clover flowers, harvested daily for bunnies and teas.   It’s a pretty nice place, now that I look at it again.

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