Living Daily Your Beliefs

I have spent the majority of my adult live in the service of others. My chosen career path is that of 'maintenance', structural, commercial, and industrial mostly. I enrolled in classes and took courses to learn electrical, plumbing, boilers and steam systems and studied with carpenters, cabinet builders, painters, wall paper and dry wall installers, all to better my knowledge and further my experience is achieving the best methods and practice that I could offer. From my 'tinkering' with household appliances to my certifications in auto mechanics, I enjoy what I do in maintenance.

I have another vocation, based a lot on my career choice, and my faith. It is another 'maintenance' position in life as well. Through this vocation, I am allowed to help others, honored to assist in the maintainability of proper function of others. I am a Priest. It was not an over night decision, and it took many years (and still does) to learn the required techniques and information that this vocation calls for. Courses in psychology, sociology, religious science, history, comparative religious studies, all just to be able to perform one function of a Priest.

The comparison of maintenance man and clergyman in my daily life, helps me to teach others how to better serve themselves and their communities. You see, in maintenance, we are not always 'repair men'. The actions we take in maintenance is to ensure continual operations or sustainability, which can be done quite often by a 'tweak' here or a 'support' there. Rarely do we need to repair or rebuild what it is we are working on. A Priest does the same, only with different tools and much more complicated subject matter. The clergy help maintain individuals strength in faith, education of religious custom, and foster a desired outcome, or product, that the religion and the community desire. These are just the aspect of councilor and instructor for a Priest, There is ever so much more...

Each religion relies on a basic set of principal beliefs, an understanding of Deity or Divine Presence of Being, has a set of customs or rituals, and in short holds a traditional concept in how one should live and interact with others. There is a lot to understand, much information to retain, and many protocols to learn, adopt and practice. The only way that I have found to achieve this, is to honestly live it on a daily basis. Every act becomes a sacred ritual for me then, every word then becomes a blessing toward others. We live our religious beliefs in our lives beyond holding ceremony, observing the Holy Days, or in study of our religious works. Your religion is not 'what' you are or 'who' you are, but 'what' you do and 'how' you live.

We each have daily rituals in life; from waking up, washing, eating, working, playing, and going to bed. Connect those simple mundane things, in your mind and spirit, and recreate that religious understanding of the Divine Within. Every act will become less mundane, and will acquire a more sacred meaning in your life. The simplest ways to live a Spiritual path, is to live simply believing that we are Spiritual creatures. It takes no more time to do it, than all the time you want. It is easy to do, with the mindset of achieving it, and it will only take a lifetime to master.

Many journeys await you, greet them with eager anticipation for the lessons that they will give you.

I AM LIVID

 Anyone who has met me can tell you one thing, I am mostly straight forward about my observations and reserved about my opinions. Anyone who has spent a day with me can tell you that I am blunt yet not brutal, and handle a lot of things with an amount of diplomacy and patience to see things through to the end. And everyone who has spent at least a week around me can testify to my position on standing on my principals, holding to my oaths, and 'walking my talk'. So when people mistake me for some run of the mill so and so, I have to remind myself that they have not had the benefits of experience about my person, nor fair warning of my personality.

     I have been recently offended and internally injured. My ethical standards attacked, my Faith tested, and my service as clergy belittled and questioned. Normally this combination of events and affronts would not phase me so, however, due to the personage of this individual who has made the ill fated mistake of performing it, I AM LIVID. 

     This was not a 'concerned family member trying to save my soul', that I have always dealt with through my teachings, and usually theirs as well, with tact and diplomacy, respect and understanding. This was not some random stranger to my faith or religious beliefs, for they too I handle quite well and help inform or educate them, or the very least accept our differences and agree to disagree. This was a supposed educated, experienced and fellow practitioner of a Pagan faith.

     One who tried to convince me I was at odds with my teachings. That I was in breach of Ordains, By-Laws and contracts as a clergy-member. That I was being disrespectful, one the verge of attacking or shunning them. That I was refusing advise and council, even friendship. There was only one, slightly important, mistake... That this person was not only wrong, that this person not only openly lied, that this person mistakenly implied threats... no non of that really. It was that this person not only made the mistake to blatantly attack me, it's that I will not tolerate that kind of action by someone who supposedly knows better and that they consider themselves my equal or better! This person will be held accountable.

What I learned from Dr. Debu Majumdar

    I had the opportunity Sunday, to go and listen to a man speak about something I have been juggling with within myself. The man was Dr. Debu Majumdar, past President of the Board at the UU Church in Idaho Falls and an author of children books that teach moral stories based on the Hindu stories from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The speech was titled simply; Occupy Wall Street Signals a Need for Return to Ethics.

 The message however was much more profound, at least for those of us who have trying to find the balance within us of being a good citizen, and a good spiritual person. I say this because of the good judgment of separating our faith from our politics and governing laws. Debu has been a devout believer of the Hindu teachings and ethical standards and has managed to form strong ties in his waking life to them, and weaving them into his mundane work as well as his political views.

   I had been wrestling with my civic responsibility(s) to my fellow citizens and my religious obligations to my community while I have been active in the ever growing social movement of the Occupy Wall Street campaign. As an active citizen, I have attended events and General Assemblies held by our local Occupy Idaho Falls groups and those of Occupy Pocatello, as well as interacted on a National scale of communication and interaction with the many various Occupy groups online, sharing ideas and developing plans of action to help educate the public and address our elected officials. As a clergy person of my faith, I have helped develop and implement action and communication of peaceful assertion and ethical behavior. True they both compliment each other in application, yet I had felt that together, they limited my ability to do more. Sunday, I sat there and realized that they did not.

   Debu brought up many things that we had all mentioned or focused on in our activities or assemblies concerning our Nation in general, our Government in action, and our future in specifics. Being a history and mythology buff, I had several times pointed out the parallels and patterns that we had fallen into as a Nation and how it had played out in the past with other countries. Debu pointed out that this country, this culture, has no long standing mythology, but does have a well documented history that we all learned as children, however, they lack much of the moral and ethical teachings that accompany the majority of cultural mythologies. Every culture that has come and blended into this great melting pot of a Nation, has brought these mythologies and cultural teachings, yet they have been played down if not removed from our education system. With such downplay in favor of science and math, we lost much more than 'faery tales' and 'ancient history', we lost the advantage of instilling into our progeny a solid foundation of ethics. I know, Christians that read this will be up in arms, but the Bible has been so over interpreted and forced onto individual thought, that the majority of the younger generations have long since pulled away from it. Sad, but true.

   As a clergyman of faith, and a spiritual person, I learned that to teach a religion or cultural belief, we must allow for the individual understanding and expression of personal interpretation. Allowing the 'student' to think, rather than telling them what to think. Faith is belief, not one based on outside definition, but in personal understanding. I too believe in the understanding and investigation of science, history, and accurate literature of cultural arts and expression. That is a belief based on facts and evidence supported by various pieces of science and history. I have blended them so deeply in my personal life, that I must always be wary of not being perceived as a manipulator of others. And I always encourage others to do the research, to think for themselves, and to be strong in their findings.

   But back to Debu... He expressed that it has more than years for this country to come to this state, but it has taken generations. He pointed out that the generation gap has grown so much, that it has gone from grandparent - grandchild to parent – child. Whereas; our children cannot fully function in communication of ideas, goals and simple ethics outside of their own generation, leaving parents, and grandparents at a loss of how to convey to them these moral choices and good behavioral patterns. Sounds like something for 'family practice councilors'? Look what 60 years, roughly 3 full generations, of this has lead our country into. These children today, have lost so much due to our failures in our generation, and the oversights of our parents generation, and the lack of communicating and keeping in-touch with our grandparents generation. Personal ethics, business ethics, social morals, and just plain common sense has been overwritten by such things as our modern society has promised us by it's technical advances.

   In place of savings, we strive for a credit rating, which requires us to borrow money and enter into debt willingly. In stead of the practice of business to raise standards of living, it raises the requirement to raise the cost of living, with the ultimate goal to 'make money' rather than quality products. In place of electoral officials working for the common goals of the people, we have allowed bribed politicians to pander to these same money minded businesses to prevail over us. There are so many places in our comparatively short history as a Nation, that we allowed these things to come to pass, without looking toward our future as a sovereign and sustainable country. Too many 'short sighted' laws have been passed that it is now common place for our legislators to through 'quick fixes' at our Nations problems, so that they can pas it off to someone else. How can we have become so complacent, so blind to this open proof of non-responsible or irresponsible acts by our government? It is simple, we do it on a personal level almost as often, if not more so, and we won't even go into the daily business dealings that make 'white collar crime' a common place term in our lives.

   That is a big bite to swallow. We are responsible. It has been a trickle down affect for generations, going back to our great-grandparents easily, and further back if we spent the time searching it. We have allowed more and more of our generations to accept and conform to a level of complacency, that the modern response to government action of corporate rulings is; apathy. Somehow, somewhere, we forgot to care, unless it happened to us directly. We forgot how to care about our fellow citizen, we blinded ourselves to facts about laws, and we forgot how important our voices and our votes really were. We were told that we didn't matter, and we believed it. We allowed our freedoms to be trimmed and limited by our government and we allowed our government to be regulated by private corporations and big business interests. (The twisted comical part is, that these corporations are crying 'foul' when the government places regulations on them, and then convinces the government to 'privatize' the regulations by outsourcing to 'third party' companies, that they have even more influence on.)

   The answers? That is now the issue. We have over 60 years to review what needs to be changed, adjusted, or repealed. The overview? Get money out of politics by removing the corporate person-hood granted by 'Citizens United' act, regulate influences of our politicians by not allowing them to be seated on corporate boards of private businesses while they hold a public office, and limiting if not completely removing the ever growing crowd of lobbyists in our legislative process. That is a good start, and mandatory before continuing I believe. 

   Next? Return the authority of this Nations currency back to the government of this Nation and out of the hands of private banks that hold no allegiance nor true investments in the well being least not the sustainability of this Nation. Then focus more on our National infrastructures that are failing our Nation; Education, Labor, Communication, Roads and Bridges, Harbors and waterways, Power grids and resource management. I'll even go so far as to focus on a National plan to increase research and general application of renewable resources for heat and power, building transit systems that increase interstate and National transportation, i. e. bus, train and waterway transit plans that resemble those of other Nations.

From here, we have to get there, from there...well only our future is at stake.

A Trieste on Leadership: the common call, duty and expectations we call for

 “Leadership dictates morale.”

In the concept of leadership, we strive to find many things. To lead by example, to be a driving force of compassion, to hold up to expectations of guiding rules and laws, and to defend those which are lead. Simple really, right? How often do we desire to find these things in ourselves and in others that aspire to 'lead'. How often do we examine the ethics and principals of our 'leaders'?

We question a lot of what our 'leaders' say and do, and for good reason. We do so in hope to find them, and ourselves, in line or in tune to the various things that govern our daily lives. We compare ideals, goals, aspirations,...we evaluate their ability to 'lead' us by our evaluation of their interpretations of our concepts. That alone likely weeds out many. Judging others by our standards. It is exactly how we select those who would be our leaders. Then we hold them to their duty by our regulation of their applications of our desire. Beginning to sound like a position that is highly unlikely to be sought after now doesn’t it?

“The actions and deeds of our leaders mandate the acceptance of their ability to lead, and their words encourage others to follow.”

Actions will always speak louder than words, and although action and words both can be set to lie or deny the truth, we sometimes fall unto our desire to see, or hear, truth despite actuality. We deceive ourselves for our desire to be in agreeance with our leaders, sometimes. Other times, we see the disagreement between our desire and that of our leaders to be in direct conflict and ability to generate action-ability. We too hold our leaders in check by what we ask of them to do, and by what they are able to do, and in so can easily find fault and lay blame that is truly undue. On the other hand, many known 'leaders' have found fault in their followers based on the same premise. Both are unjust toward the other.

“The expectations of our leaders must be as real and justified as in their ability to preform such duties.”

Many times have we allowed others to rise up to the function if not the position of leadership, by their eloquent words, single deeds, or series of 'victories' of some such ideal to be championed. These 'champions of ideals' are hero’s, but not necessarily leaders. Sometimes there are those who achieved goals, but lack the ability to hold influence and maintain an action-ability of leadership. Or, worse yet, we change our minds and redirect influence and new goals outside the endorsement of the current leader. The fault in leadership isn't always in faulty leadership, and much can be shared, if not owned, by those under the individual(s) who lead.

“It is a higher value, to know how much one cares, than by how much one knows. For Knowledge is the measure of what one has retained in memory and is the first step toward understanding. Wisdom is the application of knowledge when there is experience in circumstance, or is judgment based on circumstance when there is no previous experience nor knowledge of proper action. However, without compassion, neither knowledge nor experience, will serve leadership well, nor those who would follow.”

Leadership is a position that must be able to foster and maintain mutual respect. Our leaders should be able to give and harbor respect toward all who would come to them, regardless of station or position. And if we do not hold respect toward our leaders, then we fail them and our fellows in being able to foster strong leadership. Not all leaders can earn nor keep the respect of those they would lead, and ofttimes that is a good measure of their true ability to be able to lead. Here too, we must remember to gauge that ability by facts and not opinion. Opinion is necessary in debate of leadership ability, but all who would desire to become or maintain leadership, must be judged on factual ability, experience, knowledge and measure of compassion beyond their desire, willingness and drive.

Your'e Gonna Miss This...A day in the Life...

     I woke up this morning to news that once would upset me to no end, yet today, I blinked my eyes and shrugged it off. It was important, but not so much that my day was going to be offset by it's fact. I knew that it would most probably happen, and I had already foreseen the how's, why's, and ways to deal with it's inevitable possibility that it would be. I accepted it...
     Before my first cup of coffee, I had been dealt a personal blow. It happens more often that any of us would like, but this time, it had almost no affect on my ego nor my morning mood. I drank my coffee, read my news blogs, smoked my morning cigarette...This day was no different now than yesterday, or the day before. My routine went uninterrupted, my rituals all fell into place, my schedule undaunted.
     The phone rings, as it ofttimes does, just before my morning constitutional, and it is a 'friend in need'. This too is my morning ritual, council and advise to others who found themselves in a pickle of emotions or choices and are hesitant to act upon them. We chat our morning greetings away, get down to brass tacks, I listen intently, they speak openly, we share a common thread of intent and conclusion. Thus goes one or two phone calls every morning, my day begins in service. By the time I am fully dressed, and heading out the door to actively begin my mid morning interaction with the waking world I begin to look for a topic of focus for my personal growth and understanding.

     At my little desk set aside in the office at to place I work as a volunteer manager and receptionist, I sit and read through emails...From here I trade ideas and submit information to other small business owners/managers about marketing, social media outlets, local news and events. More blogs are written, and read from this niche, that have to do with the well-being of others I forget about eating until my stomach grows it's discontent over being ignored, and I notice that it is well into the afternoon hours. Then my phone goes into active mode again...
     By the time I decide on my meal, I will have answered my phone a half-dozen times, all personal or semi-personal calls about choices or technical advise about social media. No job offers, no potential employer call-backs, no calls to see if I need anything. No, I am not upset nor depressed about it, it is my normal day, what I do as council, manager, friend... it is and has been that way for years now. I would hate for that to not be the way, it is my life-line to the outside world, beyond my limitations of travel and physical activities.

     Through lunch, now closer to a normal persons dinner time, I write and sketch out blog entries in my head or on notepads. I chat with whoever is nearby about this-n-that, and ponder who might read my blogs and comments. I begin to polish up my entries...

     I check through emails and social media accounts again, settling in to answer a few inquiries, trade comments with friends, and look into the trending topics to see if they hold any interest for me. I write my blog....
     I write because I am interested in sharing my insight, my opinions, and my knowledge. I write to keep my mind active and my imagination stirred. This is also why I read, and I am an avid and voracious reader of blogs on many subjects. But I write...

     By late evening, I am winding down into my sitting room chair. Facing a TV with the laptop just to the side of me on it's own little table, in reach and at hand, and usually on-line. I eat my dinner, watch bio's or documentaries, sometimes how to shows, sometimes sci-fi. My interests there also varied. I glance at the laptop from time to time, connecting with friends and family who catch my eye in a chat or direct post. The day has been good, normal, in sync with my ritual and routine.

     By mid-night, I quietly slip into bed, aware that tomorrow will bring change, will be different, will fall into step with the march of my life. I smile. I know I accomplished more than I planned on, and now rarely got to bed with regrets. At peace with my world, I begin to dream....

Priest, Patriot, Citizen, Activist,...but why am I called a terrorist?

I find myself more and more akin to a political activist than an active citizen. It has thrown me into an internal debate with my ethics of being a politically neutral clergyman. I still hold to my philosophy of peace, yet I yearn for some sort of action beyond yelling to the apathetic crowd of government domesticated cattle. I pray that those who hold office will once again begin upholding to the people of our Nation. I pray that the people will rise up and demand freedom from these constrictions placed upon them and their civil liberties. I pray we once again turn to the needs of our Nation and fix our failing systems in communication, education, our hi-ways, bridges, ports and harbors.
I have been watching and waiting for the accountability of our governmental body to be answered, only to see and find that there is no such belief of our elected officials to be held so accountable for not only their actions, but for the lack of concern for this nation. Each office, each representative, each district, all claim no responsibility yet all call for more, more, more from us citizens to be given, and then blame us when there is no more left to give. And when we, drained of our own personal resources, ask for government assistance, welfare, medicaid, social security, or unemployment, they call us a burden to them, and spend the money overseas, on pet projects or to pay their salaries and personal cabinet budgets.
Enough! I have seen too many good people exploited by them. I have witnessed unchecked and unlawful actions by their privatization of our government system, a system once set as a social democracy for the good of it's people, now stands as a for profit corporation on it's own with it's own agenda.
It sickens me overly, to know that a Nation brought down to it's knees, was done so by our own apathy and our so called representatives. Our voices, so long dormant, now scream for attention, only to be given over to deaf ears. And when they do hear, they respond with arrests of civil disobedience, assaults, and insults to the very people they are supposed to be serving and protecting. This Nation, the one I grew up with so much pride in, was proud to serve and proud to be a part of.
This Nation is no more... it was critically wounded when we gave away the power to print and control our currency. It became crippled when we allowed foreign national and multi national corporations dictate policy on interstate and international trade. It was fatally wounded when our inherent rights of freedom and liberty, was restricted and limited, for our 'own good' of safety and security, by a measured congressional and presidential combination of acts, that effectively would overwrite and render useless our one true governing law, the U S Constitution.
Now, even before that said, I have been placed on a list. A long list of names. Names of people who have spoken out against the government. Names of people who have protested against corporate control, of unlawful bank and mortgage company actions, and worst of all, against our seated government.
 By the newly accepted standards of our government, I am a terrorist.
And that, sickens me most of all.

And one day, after a time...

 Once, in the history of this country, the people addressed the then government of issues and grievances in person and through correspondence. Their words were received, and responded to, with contempt. Their voices fell upon deaf ears, and their persons were labeled as trouble makers, rabble rowers and instigators of unrest. This only accelerated the situations presently in contention, and after a time, these persons instituted a direct action against the then empowered government. Yes, the first hesitant and faulty steps toward revolution and replacement of empowered government with new provisions and government body.

Almost every existing country today can claim that as a beginning of their now embanked government body. And in many places, these scenes are replayed over and over, time and time again, for various reasons with various peoples portrayed as villain and veteran, terrorist and patriot, sinners and saints all. We have so many reasons and excuses to 'go to war', and many were initiated from a 'move for peaceful change'. We take sides based on individual needs and sometimes switch sides for reasons as minor as worried about being on the loosing, or as history usually records it, the 'wrong' side. Petty and impersonal decisions, that fall far from the initial reasoning and desired outcomes.

Always is there a call from the oppressed to be helped, to be aided and uplifted from depression, disease, hunger and lack of shelter. Always there is reason to assist our fellow humans as we ourselves were helped and aided by others. Always is there also a call by the empowered to be served. Where these line vary and cross, we see injustice, unlawfulness, and a reason to be concerned. Our existing government has set guiding laws into place to uphold these less fortunate, to ensure a common defense of all persons. Persons...not corporations, not government employees or elected officials, but persons.

YET WHEN THE PEOPLE SPEAK, THEIR VOICES ARE FALLING ON DEAF EARS. 

Deafened by cash, gifts, entitlements not earned by any other means but to give heedance to those already empowered. 

And the people continue to suffer. But they are not silent.

 Together, they gather and vent their grievances, plan communications with their government, and hold to their promised rights and liberties, all the while being stripped of them and limited by new laws. Until, one day, after a time...

There is honor in holding to truths, honor in defending those who cannot defend themselves. There is honor in demanding justice, and equality, for all under the law; and there is honor in demanding the laws be just and followed by even those who would make the laws.

But there is no honor in war. No glory in battle.

Battle, the acts during a state of war (and in many times during a state of peace) cause harm, destruction, and death. They hold a high price, even unaccountable by some measures, especially when compared to the miniscule cost of a movement toward peace or peaceful change. There is little glory in death, even when defending a purpose or ideal greater than accepted Gods, endangered family, or indebted friends. Death, the final sacrifice that one can give, is a final act of defiance in the face of adversity. You cannot repeat that action once done, nor repeal it's application, but only hope to honor it by following it with changing what has lead up to and caused it's appearance.

Wars are not impersonal, they affect everyone. They affect economics and environments. They affect every species that come close to it's boundaries and actions, and they affect them for far longer than the time it takes to fight, win or loose. We all loose in war. In battle we say we either won or lost, ground, men, ideas... We still loose. In war if we be victorious, we then survey the damages and losses on all sides...We still loose. Those costs are rarely repaid nor reclaimed, and many are uncounted. We loose so much because we, as fickle and impersonal as we have become, do not see that once we begin to attack and engage in battle, one side, or many, will loose the ability to hold to itself and it's goals and will be forced into something it does not belong to nor want. Sometimes that is forever.

We destroy the old and replace it with the new. We loose. We loose bits of identity when cultures are over run and replaced by different alien things. We loose languages, art, cultural histories that once stood out and became unique only to be redefined and judged against the new. We might believe that we have won, but the cost is almost always too high to bear.

I am no lover of war. I, much like most people, prefer peace. I'm not considered a pacifist by my peers, however I hold to debate, legal precedence, and mediation and negotiation of commonality and or compromise. I will defend myself, and those who cannot defend themselves, and that of my property, and my family when necessary. That too being my right. And I will do so by any and every means necessary based on circumstance, and here too ,I hold to peace and peaceful means as long as possible. But even the hardest steel can shatter under extensive pressure.

Change is inevitable, and we are in the constant field to implement and direct it. We are all accountable for it, and it will affect us all, in some manner or another. Our choices are independent and personal, the consequences, however, are another matter all together yet still are shared by all.

And one day, after a time....