In reading the Tao today, I had certain thoughts come to me that I did not want to escape through common daily activities and it occurred to me to write them down, as it often does…..And I asked myself, why?  Why am I writing all of this down?  Although it’s rare of me to review my journaling and be surprised at the person who is writing these thoughts down at the time they were being written, it does not occur to me review my journals often enough to call it a habit. Regardless, I feel a need to write down all of these little insights, in hopes that someone will get some use from them someday. I’m sure that most writers feel this way sometimes, carefully addressing their imaginary public, hoping that someone will be able to benefit from their honest, but sometimes inane, ponderings. If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t have things like books, newspapers, magazines and, as luck would have it, bloggs and the Tao.

My reading of the Tao has become a habit of sorts.  I come home and sit next to my bedroom window and contemplate what the words mean to me specifically. I’m not brash enough to believe that I would understand anyone else’s meaning on anything, regardless of the content, as I accept as true that most communication is largely intuitive. In other words, I don’t expect to be able to really understand anything the first time because all things that are communicated to me are sent through what I like to call the “Thea” filter. I see all things through the lens of my own experience of them; therefore, before I truly understand something I need to understand the context of how it is presented. That being the case, I can assure you that I have only a most BASIC understanding of the Tao. I say this to placate my sense of self deprecation, but also to be more aware of my openness to new ideas and widening the lens of my experience. I invite you to open up your understanding of these words with me.

This is the verse I felt the need to share with you:

25.
There was Something undefined and yet complete in itself,
Born before Heaven and Earth.
Silent and boundless,
Standing alone without change,
Yet pervading all without fail,
It may be regarded as the Mother of the world.
I do not know its name’
I style it “Tao”;
And, in the absence of a better word, call it “The Great”.

To be great is to go on,
To go on is to be far,
To be far is to return.

Hence, “Tao is great,
Heaven is great,
Earth is great,
King is great.”
Thus, the king is one of the great four in the Universe.

Man follows the ways of the Earth.
The Earth follows the ways of Heaven,
Heaven follows the ways of the Tao,
Tao follows its own ways.

Three times I read this. Three times it confused me and thrilled my mind, made me seek out all of my ideas and concepts of God, all of my needs and desires for things that make me feel “good”, my fear of all things that are painful and “bad”; all of my thoughts bent on the why of things, the why of wanting to leave my words for someone or something to see and hear, the URGE to transmit all of my experience and knowledge to some other – WHAT IS THAT?!?! Tao. Just Tao. It is the great wanting to be great, to know itself fully and completely to want to see through all other lenses as clearly as my own, to want to polish the lens of my own experience to see through all that I’ve used to cloud that lens, all of my emotional torments and pleasures. And the pursuit of all this is hopelessly flawed, as there is no one being that I will ever physically point to and say – see, they are all knowing….. Unless I finally admit that those who know are like me and they don’t know, they are just aware that they’re not going to know and ok with the not knowing. Beyond our little minds, there is so much more that grows and thinks and sees beyond ourselves, and that which is also call Tao, God, All, Allah, Whatever…..knows and remembers all because we are part of that which is called Tao and we remember and are remembered by others.

I know, I’m rambling. But, at least I will look back on this entry, when I’m feeling like communicating with myself, and say…..well, I guess I’ll have to find out what I’ll say later, because I can’t think that far ahead. But it’ll be interesting.

Namaste
Thea

This morning I was reminded, in no uncertain terms, that it is my duty and responsibility to think of ways of making the world a little better, a little safer.  I was having a conversation with my husband about my thoughts about life and the continuation of life in the universe, even should the worst happen and the asteroid hit, the supervolcano erupt, the global climate finally break down to destroy all that has been built so far to date....  This is getting a little gloomy, let me elaborate.

Let me go on record as saying that I'm not an optimist.  It's in my personality to think of the worst case scenario in any given situation and run with it.  It comes from being told from a very early age that the world will come to an end within my lifetime and truly believing that until my early twenties.  Yes, my upbringing was strange.  I've often been told it's a miracle I'm as well adjusted as I pretend to be. 

Anyway, since I discovered things like cable and National Geographic, I've been fascinated with learning about all the different ways the earth could be destroyed.  I'm sure many other people have this particular hobby, all of you crazy nihilist out their raise your hands.  Yes, I know you're out there, come on, you can admit it.  Ok, so I'm a weirdo, but this type of thinking occupies my mind often.  I've tried to treat it the way a samurai would, looking at all the ways it could all end and being ok with it.  I mean, what can I do about an asteroid?  If it happens, it happens. 

So you can imagine my surprise at having a different seed planted in my mind this morning from such an unlikely source as my husband, who's known me for ten years (you get so used to people, you don't expect to have them surprise you with things you didn't think about before).  He said that it would be a moral failureof the human race to allow our own extinction given the level of intellect we possess.  If we can build bombs, rocket ships, submarines, airplanes, etc., we should be concentrating on all of these problems of extinction, finding ways to divert asteroids, study magma chambers and curing the common cold.  He is much more intelligent in his speech, so it only took half the car ride for him to convince my stubborn brain to cooperate.  I was surprised that he firmly believes this... and to some extent, I do too, although I have my doubts that the human race can pull it out of the hat. 

It is somewhat disturbing to me that my lack of faith in my fellow man runs very deep.  I hear so much talk going on, but I know that people, in general, are so stuck in their own worlds of drama, t.v. and junk food that they literally won't know what hit them.  And despite my own high minded ideals, I find my own lack of action as irredeemable as everyone else's lack of forethought.  Yes, I take the time to think about these things, but what, in fact, am I doing?  I'm not building a fusion generator or a CO2 collector.  I'm not out searching for a cure for cancer.  I'm not an astronomer looking for super asteroids.  I'm not studying tectonic plates.  Sure, I KNOW all of this stuff, but what am I doing with it?

And then I'm reminded of what I can do.  I can talk about it with people.  I can make them see it with me.  I can transmit all of this stuff, this trivia of knowledge, to anyone who wants to listen or read.  I can think, as thinking leads to the doing.  Kind of a precursor, but you get the idea.  Yes, to some extent, I'm an armchair activist.  I sit here and think about everything from animal sociology to the movement of the stars.... but that has it's purpose too. 

Who else is going to do it, if not me?  and some day, maybe an idea will come that will be put to good application in the greater community, if I am brave enough to follow through by example.  Perhaps my best goal it to get people to just THINK. 

But how does one create a grass roots movement to get people really thinking and learning? I know most of the people reading this think already, it's the nature of a small group of intellectuals that makes places like Gaia exist.  How do we spread this infection of thinking?  How do we get to the 75% of people who are content to sit at home have nothing to do with thinking?  I see it happen when I talk to people.  No matter how impassioned the speech, how interesting the concepts, all they hear is "yada, yada, yada" and it's back to Nieman Marcus and the latest Survivor episode. 

I guess I'll have to think about this some more; lately I've felt very much like I've been preaching to the choir.... I'd like to expand the area of like minded people to those who believe they have nothing better to think about.

I just have to maintain faith that we can figure it out before the asteroid hits Yellowstone and we're all screwed.

Namaste
Thea

Ok, so I'm assuming that we all went to the bathroom at some point today, and after watching shows like National Geographic's Human Footprint and reading magazines on global warming, I am now seeing a much bigger picture of what it means to leave a footprint on the Earth....  and I did not realize how much of a footprint I'm personally leaving on my favorite environment - the ocean and coral reefs.

Here's a whopper of a factoid - 7500 gallons of water is used per household per month in Florida.  That's an average of 250 gallons a day PER HOUSE.  Anyone who's ever been to Florida knows that this is the suburb capital.  Between the track housing and the high rise condos, there are alot of toilets in this area.  And most of us never stop to think what happens to that water when we flush, when we brush our teeth, when we take a shower.... but can we, the already financially strapped citizens of Florida afford to fix this?  Can we afford NOT to fix this?

I've posted to two discussion groups on this issue because, bottom line, we're either going to kill ourselves with pollution or we're going to kill ourselves from the financial strain of fixing this particular problem  Check out South Florida Gaia or Climate Change.  You can comment here or comment on the pods - but please comment. 

Ok, so it's Earth day.  Every April 22nd since the 70's, there has been an Earthday.... This isn't exactly new, although it is, relatively speaking, very young compared to some of our other annual celebrations - for example, the 4th of July in the U.S. has been celebrated for over 200 years - Earth day for a whopping 38 years. 

I was born in the 70's, so you would think that I would know alot more about Earthday, but sadly, it's not the kind of holiday we're used to 'celebrating' through large displays of consumerism, so most of us are at a loss.  It's more like an annual reminder to think of something other than our own lives, work, bank accounts, etc.... how many people do you know who like to do that?   

Christmas is like that too: peace on earth, goodwill toward man - at least for this 24 hour period on December 25th.  You can be mean to someone tomorrow when you return that plasma t.v. at your local department store without a receipt. Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get the point.

The original Earth Day concept was the brainchild of Gaylord Nelson, a US Senator of Wisconson and the concept was to start a grassroots demonstration for the environment.  Here's a clip I got from the Wiki article I read this morning:

Five months before the first April 22 Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30 1969, the New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the rising tide of environmental events:
"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweepeing the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam..."

So here's my question:  What happened to all those grass roots people?  Am I just imagining things, or did this whole 'sweeping the nation' thing escape my attention?  I learned about Vietnam in school, I've seen movies and pictures, the feeling about it was (and still is) a very young scar.  However, I have spoken to quite a few people this morning, and truth to be told, not one of them knows it's Earth Day. 

Can you imagine forgetting Easter?  Christmas?  A loved one's birthday?  I can't even use the excuse of "well it's only been around for 38 years...."  I've been around for less and I remember my birthday, my kids birthday, I remember all the other holidays.... What gives?   Sure, we've had concerts in the park and alot more education on global climate, but our current problems in the U.S. are starting to mount - water shortages, increase in destructive weather, pollution, suburban sprawl, etc.  I don't think I'm being overly negative here, I can see that America is using more not less.  And we're complaining about it too!    Anyone talk about gas prices today?  I know I did. 

I think Earth day needs a custom.... You know, a tradition of sorts.  Christmas, we put up the lights, Thanksgiving we eat a turkey, birthdays we get stuff.... But none of these things seem to fit with the entire point of Earthday.  We celebrate things by consuming more things.  Wouldn't it be appropriat to choose NOT to consume something? 

We can treat this like a New Years Eve thing where we all choose one "thing" to really cut out, like fast food, 1 hour of tv a day for this year, less paper at the office, recycling, that type of thing. 

I went to the Earth Day "official site" and it said the best thing to do today is to call my local representatives to bring attention to climate change.  That's a start, I suppose.  But I think that having a more personal and sacrificial gesture is in order.  Events and volunteer opportunities are great, but how about just shutting off the water?  The T.V.? The computer?  How about REALLY making an effort to recycle some of your stuff? 

Here's a cool little site that I was sent to this morning, and I love the concept.... The Freecycle Network is a website where you can meet up with other people to trade stuff.  Not buy stuff, trade stuff.  "It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills". 

How's that for a start this year?  Get reused stuff.  Don't go to the store and get more of what you don't need.  Save your money.  Save the gas.  Save the desk that some guy doesn't have room for and save the planet in the process.  One less purchase at the discount store means one less product processed, one less piece of product to toss out. 

Here's the deal - All these factories and cars and homes and conveniences run on the fuel we provide through consuming it.  We fuel it all -  And as long as we keep fueling it, it will continue to grow, like a tumor.  Pretty soon, the only thing that there wil be room for is all the stuff we keep producing.  All I'm asking everyone to do it go to this site and sign up for Earth Day and the next time you think you need something, go there first.  That's it. 

Anyway, that's my two cents.  I hope I get change back from you this time.  Comment, comment, and please comment.

Namaste
Thea