My Life by Song

1} It's a Boy-the Who 

2} Child in Time- Deep Purple

 3} School Days- Chuck Berry 

4} School's Out- Alice Cooper, baby! 

5} Speedfreak-Motorhead

 6} A Well Respected Man- the Kinks 

7} Starman- Bowie 

8}the Loner- Neil Young 

Thoughts on Joe

A recent family photo got me to thinking and I feel the need to share. I have a brother- in- law, now deceased, whose Life views and mine were polar opposites. The one place we did come together was, of course, Music. We never let our opposing views come between us. We loved each other because we loved and respected the same people. We never came to blows because we were Family. I miss him and I believe he would be one of the first to join me in saying we are all Family. I find it hard to believe and accept the views I see espoused by old friends and acquaintances, especially the ones I've tripped with, but I think of the relationship I had with my brother and how we were accepting of each other and try to understand and hope they all do too and that the World will someday be a better place. 

Polipricks

I'm a Boomer.
I used to be proud to say that.
I was raised in a generation that created a social attitude and atmosphere that was not centered on a war effort like our parents.
It was actually an anti-war effort.
A new society mind-set.
A multitude of ideas garnered from past poets and social commentators to gel into a group-think that put Love and Peace and Caring for one another at the center of everything.
At least that's how it felt to a youthful,rose-coloured glasses me.
This generation brought about and set into motion a miraculous outpouring of inventiveness and creativity in art and music and social interaction that promised that Age of Aquarius,that Utopia,that Promised Land that America could be.
I could not wait to see what happened when we came of age in the political arena.
The kids on the streets and in the courtrooms in Chicago and Ann Arbor and anywhere and everywhere were politicos.They were seeking change and bringing it about.
Maybe they didn't raise the pentagon,the bastion of warmongering, off of the ground but they brought about public awareness and eventually ended a war that never should have happened.
I foresaw great things when these people would move into the seats of power.Bringing change from the House and Senate floors.
What a great day it would be when one of us became President of the United States of Amerika!!!
It happened.
It wasn't Earth shattering.
There didn't seem to be much change.
It was politics like usual.
Even a guy who had housed with the Weather Underground kow-towed to the banking industry.
We were not seeing the changes in Society that happened in the Sixties.
By the Eighties we were more concerned with ourselves than the good of us all.
Yippies became Yuppies and the all-mighty dollar was as much of an aspiration as it had been post-war.
There was talk and action but not to the extent that I had envisioned.
Then came the bullies.
That's all I can call them.
The string of political leaders in this country since the new millenium have been nothing but macho men with their public image at the center of their political positions.
It seems to be they are more invested in the yippee-ki-yay of the Old West than any New Age communal love,peace and suppose-they-gave-a-war-and-nobody-came mindset I had hoped to see in our leaders.
Who can police the World and kill the bad guys and Make America great again kind of thinking seems to be the norm.
When was America great I ask.
When we pushed people off their lands and took what we wanted?
When we have been forever at war,with each other,with anyone we don't see as thinking like we do,when we promote the ideas and policies onto others that we think they should have?
This brings me to my point.
That being the last elections of presidents since 2016 when Americans,a large majority of them being my beloved Boomers,seemed to think that an aging,failed businessman with only his public image and need for power in some way had the good of the common man at heart and should be the face and leader of what we like to call the Free World.
He brought the divisions and hateful thinking of the common man out into full view.Suddenly it was okay to be a bully and an asshole and have no regard as to what one said or thought or did and how it would reflect on and affect our fellow man.
Up popped another old boomer with his hands clenched,all ready for fisticuffs on the campaign trail and debating floors.The self-appointed hero who would bring down the bully and make everything all better.
Not the shining examples of the peace and love generation I imagined.
There is good out there.
There are people with caring and the good of humankind still in the world and in the political climate.
I say it is time these old farts forget their agendas and move aside and let a new generation try to do better than we did.

Tuned In or Tuned Out?

I've come to a realization about myself.
And how I listen to Music.
It stems from my getting to know a rapper,not my music of choice, and having their music shared with me and saying to them that I can't understand the lyrics.
In my defense they are delivered lightning fast in most cases but I then started thinking about the music I do listen to by choice.
The music I have listened to for ages and I became aware that for years I have not been listening to lyrics. 
Maybe not hearing them since I am predisposed by heredity to loss of hearing. Being hard of hearing doesn't account for not knowing the lyrics to songs I've known most of my Life,however.
It seems I have not been listening to or paying attention to lyrics for as long as I have been listening to music and yet there are songs that I know all the lyrics by heart! I can quote them,I remember, them I sing along when I hear them.
Granted some of this can be attributed to the fact that I used to peruse ,scan,devour album covers in a certain period of my existence and thusly,read the lyrics ,sinking them into my memory but that doesn't account for songs I only heard on the radio.
Songs I had no reason to care about what was being said and yet I know them. I know what's coming up when I hear them.
That last statement brought up a point that I believe may be at the center of this confusing conundrum: 
Do I care about what I am listening to? Are the lyrics the important part of a song to me,what I zero in on or am I drawn more to the beat,the guitar sounds,the instruments in general and the percussion in particular?
I have been known to bang a drum in my time. Is that where-in my music listening has always been centered? 
Why are some song lyrics effortlessly implanted into my mind and others never even considered? Is this common among others or a quirk in myself?
I don't know if I will ever get the answers to these questions. For years I never even noticed that I wasn't actually paying attention to what was being said and in the present I find myself not actually being able to identify the lyrics.Heck,I don't even know the titles of songs I have known for ages and possibly know by heart!
I love music. It is one of the most important things in my Life and always has been yet I find myself enjoying long periods of silence and have come to this lack of importance of lyrics thing and I wonder just where does it stand in importance to me.
I won't be giving up on it anytime soon,though and I won't be knowing what the songs are about like always but at least I realize it now!

Remembering

Ever since it's release I watch the same movie every year on my birthday.   

As I watched it this year I had to reflect on it's meaning the same as I did last year .

V for Vendetta is a very powerful movie. A moving movie.

A movie that although it doesn't stay true to the original graphic novel it's based on still conveys the message of a land that was lied to by those who wanted power and to make a profit and scared into submission by a virus that was let loose on purpose.

It makes the watcher swell with the power that words can have and the power that the people can have when united in a cause.

When this movie came out it addressed ,was in response to ,the actions of a conservative government in America that had recently used a terrorist attack to scare its populous into submission in the form of the Patriot Act and another unjust war.

As I watched it on November 5th, 2021 I thought how its meaning ,the meaning I see in it, the meaning that makes me shiver and be overcome with anticipation and excitement as the strains of the 1812 Overture accompany a fantastic fireworks display, could be twisted to reflect the recent events and the feelings that were tearing this country apart .

A virus had torn through the entire planet the year before killing millions and creating a fear that the government had somehow caused it for political reasons. Being scarily similar to the movie, the conspiracy theories ran rampant and people eschewed common sense and safety practices because they felt the alleged yoke of the government on their necks.

Nobody was being forced into black bags but you would have sworn they were by listening to the outcry on social media platforms.

By the Nov 2020 presidential elections the country was severely divided along social, political and idealogical lines. There was talk of civil war.

The presiding president was  a man who openly admitted that he could do anything and get away with it. A power hungry, attention seeking nationalist who rallied his supporters and whipped them into a frenzy against any subject to which he was opposed. He told them that if he lost the election it would be by fraud and cheating on the other side and he would not accept the loss.

He lost and when the newly elected president was being confirmed a crowd of his supporters stormed the capital building with the intent of overturning the election results and doing harm to members of Congress.

Just as the virus story from V for Vendetta could be misconstrued to reflect the Covid pandemic the throngs of Trump supporters could very well have seen themselves as the mass of Guy Fawkes masked acolytes of the lead character on a mission to make their country right again.

This year as I rewatch, as I feel those same feelings that the movie invokes I have to wonder if those people don't realize that the one who stirred them on is more like Sutter and McCreedy than the man on a vendetta trying to make things right and make those who did wrong pay for their crimes against him and humanity, the man who was deemed a terrorist by a frightened government .

Do they realize that they are the terrorists? 

Why does the phrase " A people should not be afraid of their government, government should be afraid of the people" mean something different to them than it does to me?

Why can't they see that the one they follow so blindly has not their best interests in mind but his?

I'll be headed to the polls soon and make my vote counter theirs. It isn't a presidential election year but there is a struggle still ongoing between the liberals and the conservatives and as I vote I will remember, remember that there are those around me who could very well take up arms against me for my opinions...

Which brings me to another Remembrance.

At the end of this week there is a public holiday.

In essence it is a day to remember those who took up arms to defend their country.

I don't feel there has ever been a just war and that our government has been as guilty of indoctrinating the youth to feel that they are indeed, fighting wars that are born of power struggles, money matters and border disputes, the twisting of events for the good of the few, to protect our freedoms  and way of life as any of the countries deemed as "the bad guys".

From childhood we pledge allegiance in public schools and are made to feel proud to fight and die for our ideals. Ideals that are supposed to be born and protected in the halls of government.

Veterans Day came into existence as Armistice Day.

The day on which fighting was halted in the First World War.

Remembrance Day.

Remembering that there can be Peace if only fleeting.

Veterans and fighting and dying and country allegiances did not bring about that Armistice.

For one brief moment in history warring factions said "Enough!"

That's what I want to remember .

There can be Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward all.

Do I Believe in a HigherPower?

I pick up sticks and gather stones

I wear the crystals and toss the bones.

I mix up lotions and call them potions.

I speak of the old ways and old one’s notions.

Yet though I think of myself as wizardly,

I still ask,”who you jivin’ with that Cosmik Debris?”

I believe in Electricity.

I believe in Magnetism.

I believe in Gravity and Balance. Yin and Yang.

I believe we need to have Faith and that whatever we put out into the Universe reflects what we get back.

I don’t confess a religion.

I don’t worship anything.

I don’t believe in any form of deity.

I believe that all deities were imagined by peoples past to explain the happenings in the World and the thoughts within their minds.

People being so alike is why those deities share commonality.

I don’t worship the Moon but I do accept it’s influence on the tides and hence the Earth and the people on it.

I don’t worship the Sun but do accept it’s place as a necessity for Life on this planet.

I don’t worship Nature in general yet see it as an intertwined system of Life and Growth and Nutrition.

Sticks and Stones and Crystals and Bones are part of Nature and contain the powers of electricity and magnetism and the universal life forces that flow through that entwined system as much as the food we sustain ourselves with contain that force and gives us the power to live.

I believe there is power in words and power in symbols including numbers.

I believe there is power in Two as in Balance.

I believe there is Power in Three and that is why it has been used to show youth, mid-age and old age as well as holy trinities.There could be an essay on that alone.

I believe there is power in Four,as in the four corners,seasons, elements.

I know. There is a fifth element .

That of Spirit.

Human Spirit. 

The Higher Power. 

I believe there is something to be gained from Runes as they are a form of language and symbols combined.

All of these things contain Life essence and we can rely on the ways and teachings of generations past but must also put our own personal twist, our feelings, our observations into and onto them to become one with those forces and not control them nor be controlled by them but to manage them and manage to exist with and as part of the Natural World.

I believe in Science but with the knowledge that it is conceived by human minds and most of it is Theory and even what are known as Laws can be broken or proven wrong.

I believe in Knowledge and the power to change our thoughts when new evidence is presented.

I believe in Change and Cataclysm. Neither need be for the better or the worse. They are merely how Life continues onward.

I believe in the use of natural elements and essences in the aid of humankind.

The study of plants and their interactions with our bodies is the basis of what we call Medicine and has brought about near miraculous transformations of both Body and Mind.

I believe in Magic in the sense that we can influence the course of events with our knowledge.

The fact that I can send my voice across the Universe and it is heard the same way I spoke or I can walk into a room and move my hands or say some words and things I want to happen do,in my mind is Magic.

I believe the power of thought and intent can control outcomes.

Magic!

So,yes,I believe in Higher Powers.

Not beings with a power over us.

Not a creator.

Not a puppet master.

Not a being who is all powerful to whom we must show obeisance.

In short, not a being.

I believe in the Powers we call Nature and that we can harness and use them to make our own Energies.

To create and sway them to have Life happen as we wish or as we deserve.

The power of the mind coupled with experience is called wisdom.

Sagacity.

The root of the word sage.

If we are skilled in the activity of working with natural forces we are indeed wizards.

Or should strive to be so.

Religions are about the harnessing of the mind.

In the best sense each one’s individual mind.

In the worst sense the controlling of minds by words and rituals. Sacraments and ceremonies.

I perform only the basic rituals.

Breathing in the essence of what is around me.

Breathing out what is harmful .

Joining my essences with the natural ones around me.

Acknowledging Nature in all it’s Beauty and Force.

Attempting to be one with Nature.

You will hear me say,”Do No harm”.

You will hear me say,”Do Unto Others As You Would Have Done To You”.

You will hear me say," Merry Meet or Merry  Part".

You will hear me say, "Blessed Be" and "Let It Be" and "Let It Be So".

You will hear me say, "Love One and Other " and "Love your Sisters and Brothers " and "Give Peace a Chance" and "People Have the Power ".

You will hear me say,”Whatever’s Right” and “Take Care”.

I greet the Woodland creatures and birds and bugs and try my best to not hurt them as I don’t like when they hurt me.

So,yes,I believe in a Higher Power. 

The Power of Nature and the Powers that it bestows on us and the Way we use them.

I believe in the Way as expressed in Buddhism and the like.

I believe in the teachings Jesus put forth about how to treat others. 

I believe in Philosophy and the Workings of the Human Mind.

I believe we can be whatever we strive to be.

What kind of guru am I,anyway?

I don't wrap newspaper round my head or use the dust of the Grand Wazoo.

I may never reach Nirvana or cure your asthma.

I don't have a crystal ball or repeat mumbo-jumbo or waste my time on useless rhetoric. 

If I have a religion it would be one of striving to be a better unit in this entanglement of Powers as I have addressed herein. 

People

I see people laughing about being in and getting out of Facebook jail and I wonder what is it they do to get in that predicament and why are they so cavalier about it.

I go to find what it takes to be jailed and find that it could be some very horrible actions or statements or posts that demean, falsify or threaten  but basically  there is the being a simple ass and uncaring person that could and probably does land most of the people I am acquainted with in there.

Perhaps the worst aspect of our Society is the one where nothing is sacred and everything is funny and not realizing that what one sees as not being able to take a joke is another seeing that there is no joke. It's funny to see someone fall out of bed. If I hurt myself when I fall out of bed, well,that just ain't funny and I don't appreciate your thinking my pain is.

Taking it a step further,I say,"please don't laugh at my pain" and they say the equivalent of "cantja take a joke!"

They do not care to see how their behavior, their attitude, their cry of "My Freedom"are actually the absence of the common human responsibility to be kind to others.

To be continued...

Preferences

Don't you hate when " one second remaining" takes minutes?

When preferences are set and then you find out they changed?

When you tell your assistant to do something it does for you a thousand times from a routine you've set and it says,"sorry. I don't know that"!

And speaking of "Pet Peeves"...

I really get tired, aggravated,downright pissed at companies or other entities that attempt to get you to renew or even take advantage of their services when you are, in fact, already a paid-in-full member using and enjoying what they have to offer!

How many places am I enrolled and up-to-date only to get annoying alerts and wasted paper mailings trying to win me over?

I have been annoyed to the point in the past, if I don't really feel the need to keep the service to go ahead and drop it because of their practices.

And don't get me started on organizations that send me money, coins usually, in the attempt to entice me to be a caring giver. I keep the dough. 

I once sent a reply explaining how my father taught me to never send money through the mail and gave them his piece-of-mind as to how I felt about those who did so in the attempt to raise money for a cause.

"How can I trust you to know how to handle money when you send it through the mail?" !!!!!

Then there is the person who responds to something you say with " ha ha. You have too much time on your hands".

Seriously?!

Are you implying that what I just told you or the thing I did was a complete and udder waste of time?

Sure, they mean it in a ha ha joking way but do they really stop to think that they are in fact telling you that that thing has no value. 

Perhaps it seems trivial to them and maybe it is trivial to you as well but you did it.you said it. so it does have some worth in the scheme of things!