There is no Them. There is only Us.

Bono - "There is no them, only Us."

I've shared this sentiment almost verbatim for years, and was struck to hear Bono (of U2, Amnesty International, (Product)Red and the ONE campaign) repeating it over and again with such emphasis at Georgetown University on CSPAN today.

In my case, it's not been for global unity or a $25 billion international aid pledge for Africa. For me, it's become a meditation on a brotherhood often denied and neglected, between myself and those in my life - in my friend's and loved one's lives - with those we would readily disassociate from; in my case, for the perverse pleasure of a false sense of superiority... for distraction from a reality inconvenient.

As reaction-formation to thinking in "those/them/they" terms, I try to think in "we/us" terms, and encourage others to do so whenever prudent. This outlook, even in heinous circumstances (as often as possible), is incredibly helpful in making and keeping peace, helping us see relationships and reality more clearly, thereby avoiding needless stresses and resentments.

The causes of problems seen in this way tend to lie exposed as arising from individual and circumstantial limitations - often enough more a Situation to be accepted than a Problem that can be resolved. Again here, this perspective yields both great peace and a steady decisiveness.

It's a challenging thing to consider and accept, really ...sometimes impossible.

Massive upside, though.

-xv, 11/2012

Happy Hallowe'en - October 31st, 2012

ALL SAINTS' DAY
ALL SAINTS' EVENING
ALL HALLOWS' EVEN
HALLOWS E'EN
HALLOWE'EN

Celebrated alongside other holy days during a time of year when food has historically been most readily available to feed people to come together - harvest, when the day begins to shorten, the summer heat wanes, and all the world sets ready for the stillness of winter.

Pagan and Christian alike see their mortality reflected, yet rejoice in a life enduring, and hope resilient, just as new shoots and buds endure, their vigor reserved, in steady anticipation of the spring to come.

Happy Hallowe'en, All Saints', and All Souls' Days, friends and family!

of Resentment and Scarring

Resentment and hard-heartedness become more burdensome than what we resent, and often enough, more of an impediment as well. Time may not heal all wounds, but it will never heal those we keep open. Here is how scars are beautiful: as wounds, that were allowed to heal.

usccb.org/bible/mt/23:24#48023024-1

 
-XV

Words to a Friend Anxious to not Waste Time

You need to slow down, I think. You are brilliant, but a brilliant
mind needs time to reflect and digest things... to absorb them. I
think you see that natural use for time as a hindrance now. ...

---
"I've had plenty of time to think & reflect. Soon the time will come to stop thinking and start doing something".
 ---

As for the natural use of time, I emphasize the word -use-. Enlivening a moment, giving pulse to a possibility- this is what I mean, not something opposed to thinking. This is thinking being carried out, reflection being lived, and it takes time. Not the marked, past-tense, alien time of how-long-did-that-lap-take, but the 1 second-per-second being & doing time.

You will never redeem what is spent. Do not begrudge what time it takes for you to shift from A to B, etc. Time taken is your friend, insomuch that it co-operates with you as you co-operate with it.  This is no trivial thing: this is the difference, right here, between living graciously, or living in anxiety and with slow-searing resent.  Time WILL take you if you do not take your time. My caution is merely to take no more, and no LESS than you need, and to let that be something less burdensome than dutiful and gratifying.

Many lauded with successes you seek are yet unhappy, and sour the world about them. You'd best beware. Seen another way: you are more real than your time... and it is made real only as it meets you, in the present you now enliven.

A Brief Reflection on Pre-Language, Identity, and Confusion.

September 3rd, 2012, xv. ~

We accept as our identity ideas and the codices used to communicate them, then stand amazed at the confusion, misunderstanding, and divisiveness all around and within us.

Sacred books, constitutions, libraries, venues, bakeries, markets, unions... without what precedes language, none of these are worth stone.

Don't say "No". Yes.

Why do we look to brokenness for standards of normalcy, but to alleviate responsibilities accepted as more burdensome than ennobling duty?

Cooperate with your bed and the floor, together and unopposed.

Don't say "No".  Yes.

Don't be a dick.

"Don't be a dick."

Anybody can be nice when they feel like it, and just as easily be a dick when they feel like it. Even beasts do this.

Practice a discipline of kindness, ESPECIALLY when you're not up to it, and you'll find it's a lot easier to resist being cold-hearted when experiencing some moodiness. The reason why: you're getting used to having feelings, instead of feelings having their way with you.

Chasing highs over lows (manic-dep.) or killing-off your sensitivity (psychopathy) is an immature response to your emotions.  However common that immaturity may seem, both ways are tense, and seeped in distrust, anxiety, and fear; both are downward spirals, opposed to reality... both untenable.

"Don't be a dick." Good advice.
http://ruleoftheinternet.com/

Grape & Herb Tuna-Salad Sands:

Grape & Herb Tuna-Salad Sands:
-
2 egg-bread rolls
pinch of salt
1/4 lime juice & meat
2 Tbsp mayonnaise (or 1-1.5 Tbsp yoghurt)
1 can of tuna, drained
2 thin small white onion slices, chopped
6 stems-worth parsley leaves, minced
2 tsp grated parmesan cheese
2 cups sliced & quartered seedless grapes
1 cup creamy ripe avocado
-
Mix ingredients and serve on open-faced rolls. Yield: 2 portions.

For some nice options, try toasting the rolls, swapping the grapes for green apple and chopped dried date, or sprinkling on some cayenne, olive oil, celery, or dill.
---

divisive pseudo-spirituality...

A healthy belief-system enables you to relate-to your neighbor, not dismiss them & segregate yourself.  If your personal limitations require that you oppose others to defend your sense of self, then just know that as-it-is. Yet if your beliefs require you to oppose or distance yourself from others as a matter of ideal preference, then you need to think rethink them.

Should a soul long for justice or mercy? Which of these can we afford to live a-life-worth-living without? And how do we define these things? More importantly, what are these things our definitions merely echo? Do we hide behind definitions to terminate the challenge of conscience, of thought?

Be this person.

We need people who will accept the good in us despite our shortcomings, not reject the good in us because of them.  Still, do not long for this person; Be this person. 

Rejecting someone despite their great goodness says to them "your faults are far greater, still", but accepting a body despite his or her flaws says an edifying opposite: "You are lovable, and worth loving, in spite of your shortcomings". 

To others, and to yourself; Be this person.

14" TV for $20

TV / VCR 14", with remote & manual.
 Good condition. $20.
 near: sw Eight Street and the Turnpike, Miami, Florida
 text: 201-298-3549 -Xavier

Toshiba analog CRT TV/VCR with remote & manual.
-front AV (white/yellow) inputs.  rear cable input.
-lightweight, solid built-in handles.
-easy wake, sleep, and weekly recording scheduler.
-use as an alarm & DVR-substitute.

listing: http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/app/3743510559.html

 --- --- --- ---
labels:  TV for Sale, TV/VCR, VCR, For Sale, Miami

You Pray for Understanding...

July 13/14, 2012. 1:49am:
Dark times. Days are avoidant battles. Nights, escapist insomnia. Dreams: of being attacked, chased, and falling. Enduring.

Surviving... doesn't vibe with sociability, Not as I know it. All me, I know. ...mostly me.

---

I think, I think I am starting to understand, some things... We choose, sometimes. Other times, we fear and avoid what we know -- overwhelmed, and there is no choice at all. The longing for distraction and presence of the known uncomfortable so beyond our capacity... This, is not freedom, but there is an IS to it, and that IS is worth accepting, and seeing lucidly.

---

You pray for understanding, come what may, and find that what made sense, and seemed to be working, is now all inside-out and around-about, a mashed-hash of sense, light, color and sound, turned at odds with what you just thought known, and certain.

I don't want to, but a believe, there is, and it can be found, some... loving-purpose in this, this "Chased, falling, avoidant-yet-longing Being".

Unsociable Facades of Sociability

"Doubt and faith are friends. The enemy of faith is fear.

The doubt I speak of is that of an honest, open mind; not that of one closed by prejudice." -BH
---

The honesty part is a big catch: we don't "get" honesty much. Too difficult, and too threatening...

We pretend to be too "sociable" now to be -that- kind of social, to permit our multi-faceted, vulnerable reality to dance with this seemingly-expedient illusion. Unless a crisis comes up: then honesty is a comfort again, so we take shelter there... until the storm passes. Then its easy to put our bullsh*t on parade, and disdain vulnerability yet again.

Of course, the quote above is right, but assuming the joke at the cost of our contact with reality is just so much more fun (read: less risky)!

...Or is it?

Metanoia, Thanksgiving, and Being

That attent to creation we are renewed, and in turn give thanks by right act - like the ebbing and flowing of tides, or swelling and released breaths - to this I can attest, yet these two things are bound so intimately, only theory can imagine them apart.

Thanksgiving and Metanoia.
Formation and Action.
Being as Being.

https://www.facebook.com/sergiomguzman/posts/10150727422965642
http://blogthoreau.blogspot.com/2009/05/temporary-vernal-lakes-thoreaus-journal.html

▶ All Sides Gone by thelittleidiot

▶ All Sides Gone by thelittleidiot Moby

heart of the deep. belly of a fish.

The heart of the deep unknown, is the belly of a great fish.
Residence there portents an awareness of great spiritual truth.

Watch the weather change.

-xv
 april 12, 2012

On Trust and Being

On Trust and Being
________________________

"Trust God alone! Of course!" -(sound good?)
"God must also trust God alone!" -(still sound good?)
"I must not trust myself or anyone in the world, except God." -(God alone, right?)
- - -   - - -   - - - 

By what merit and means can we trust God if we first distrust being?  Insanity.

Something about creation being good, and aloneness, not...

Existing is good, and it is better to sin while struggling with vice and virtue, than to quietly submit to distrust and do nothing.
Something about spitting out that which is neither hot nor cold...
- - -   - - -   - - -

So, which matters more: trusting God, or trusting yourself?

By-what-means do you trust God?
What do you trust in yourself?
...and to what end?