Just Kidding Below.

A rare photo of this elusive painter. Like future road kill, he stands frozen in the bright camera lights.
Don't worry he scampered away and no one was hurt.

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FAMILY PICTURES BELOW



My Daughter, Sondra, lives in California.
She has become quite the spiritual and philosophical soul.



A fairly recent photo of Pamela, Nisha, Bryce and me.

(Above Left) Pamela - Soul Mate - Singer - born 1950
We worked together for 20 years in the music business.
She is the best human being I know.

Nisha - my daughter from India. - Born 1981
Just as sweet as she looks and a very intelligent/savvy woman.
Married 2 years now.

Bryce - my son was born 1977
Computer Tech. - Loves technology, talented in graphics and definitely
a sci-fi geek with 2 beautiful twin girls of his own.

For Myself - I'm older, whiter and still healthy and happy.

I am proud of my family for so many reasons, but most of all because they are kind,
unassuming and extremely respectful of others.

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Everything written below is personal observation, so don't go there unless you are prepared to be offended.

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What I remind myself every day.

All heavy metals found on earth, all the elements above Iron (Fe) on the periodic table, came from exploding stars or meteorites. Your gold jewelry comes from ancient dying stars that burned long before our sun was born. Those stars were much bigger than our sun.

All the ancient peoples of Earth still exist. The Maya, Inca, Greek, Anasasi, Roman, Egyptians, Nubian, Mongols and natives of all kinds are still here. They simply disperse amongst the rest. Yes even the DNA of Neanderthal is within us. Anything that is physically possible can happen and is natural.

Things that I know......

Humankind is part of nature and cannot rise above it. Therefore anything that happens as a result of humankind, good or bad, is natural.

Stop looking toward the past and history for the answers. The past is loaded with mistakes and violence.

People are not defined by what they do to earn money, they are defined by everything else they do and think.

Every decision is the most important decision of your life.

Compassion can exist without religious dogma.

It should never ever be "your country right or wrong". Get a life and do your own thinking.

While money exists, compassion goes out the window. You know what I mean. If someone knew how to cure a disease then, typically, they would charge the most money from those who suffer from that disease. If someone could warn people of impending disaster, typically, they would delay telling them until the 11:00 PM News. What better way is there to increase ratings than to create fear or dependence? We could easily do better but our greed and laziness will preserve the "status quo".

There has never been a successful government. Democracy, Communism, Socialism and the hundreds of dictatorships have all decayed. The reason is they are all corrupted by "top down enforcement" using power alone. The only successful government will involve an agreement by all people on how to live without threatening the existence of any individual. This is truly a civilization that would crystallize into a viable universal representation of what humankind could be. It would be enforced from the bottom up and would involve all humans. In this world there is no class, no money, no privileged information, no secrets, no hunger, no hoarding, no wars and even the highest position of responsibility would bow the lowest. Now that is freedom.

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THINGS THAT ARE BEAUTIFUL

I was sailing south on the USS Providence just off the coast of Bali in 1968. It was a hot still summer night around 12:00 midnight with a full moon above. I was sitting on the deck with a few of my friends in the band. Everything was eerily quiet and even the sound of a nuclear cruiser disappeared in the absolute smoothness of the pacific. The surface of the water was completely hidden by 2 feet of solid fog. It was as if we were sailing on a cloud and when you looked over the side you saw only white. Above us the galactic plane was crystal clear. Now if you stared long enough over the side you would see flying fish come out of the cloud below and glide about 20 yards before diving back into the white silence. The whole experience was like living in a Dali painting. The flying fish, the silence and the fog were all components of a beautiful moment that I would never again experience. It wasn't over yet!! We had a 1st class petty officer who was a phenomenal tenor sax player. He could have played anywhere with anybody but, being disgusted with everything and everybody, he was happy drifting in the navy band as long as he had a place to eat and sleep. Well that same night we saw him on deck, dressed only in his underwear and with his tenor hanging from his neck, following an officer up to the bridge. My friends looked at each other and we agreed that he was fuming mad. Not five minutes later we heard "Bali Hai" played over the loud speaker so the whole ship could hear it. Once the melody was over he finished it off with a mad flurry of notes as if pissing all over what he had just played. Ahhh, the wonderful language of music.

The whole concept of a woman can be mysterious and beautiful.

The smells after a summer rain.

Learning something new.

Playing tackle football with your friends.

Having friends,

Helping a stranger for no other reason than the fact that they need help,

Communicating with animals,

Prismatic effects of light,

Our Sun,

All the sciences and arts,

and well, just about everything can be beautiful.

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OUR WORLD

Looking over the past fifty thousand years or so, it has become evident that Humankind is incapable of governing itself. At best we are, like water seeking its own level, floundering in temporary nightmares we call countries, dogma and race. Gulliver's Travels is not a fiction. We are still living in a reality where hundreds of Lilliputs and Blefuscus are still struggling with each other. Each seeking to dominate the other. Still children...... still waving flags, fighting wars, using money and worshiping the ridiculous.

What we as humans can do is sometimes an abomination. We use force to impose the beliefs of the privileged few. We use ignorant people to righteously enforce absurd justice on those who resist, as witnessed below:

 

I'm sure this is a proud moment for these ignorant Chinese soldiers.
As long as ignorance is rampant, we can rest assured that these
proud moments will continue for a long time.

No democrat, republican, religious leader, economic genius or any other conventional icon will delay the self destructive nature of humankind. We will never crystallize into a viable presence in the universe unless we eliminate our rigid understanding of HOW we should live. This will not be possible as long as we insist in preserving the past and using economic or religious concepts of order.

The following is the easiest way to solve our problems, yet the hardest to implement due to lack of will and ignorance:

1. Pick a future date in which all humans are given the proper information and time to prepare for a      global reboot. We voluntarily dismantle all prejudices and protect each individual from oppression.

2. On that date, we abandon money and all present concepts of governing by extortion, coercion or      religious means.

3. We inventory Earth's resources and determine the best way to proceed on a survivable path that      benefits Earth and all humankind.

4. Once our resources are measured, we distribute those resources equally without hoarding or prejudice.

5. Secrecy and competition are replaced by sharing and cooperation.

5. All knowledge and medical treatment is free.

6. Humans would spend only 4 hours a day in service to society (a job), while the rest of the day is      reserved for the individual to spend as he or she sees fit.

7. How do we implement such a fantasy? From the bottom up. Any intellectual or physical structure can      be destroyed from the bottom up. The masses follow any rule, just or unjust, out of fear. Yet if all of      the majority act as a unified block, they can overcome any established practice. They could, for      example, refuse to pay insurance premiums. If this is done unilaterally and on a voluntary basis, no      retribution or punishment is possible and the targeted industry fails. This also works for      Governments.

8. To be cont.

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Happiness, Personal Power and Unlearning

When someone is unhappy, negative, sickly all the time, wines or seems sluggish of personality, it is most often caused by "self importance". Not the conceited kind of importance we all know of, but the self involved reality we are all obsessed with. We think we are important and we build our own preferred way of looking at things and events through time. It is when that reality dominates our thoughts and becomes a requirement for happiness that we lose our lightness and "personal power". When things don't measure up to our liking we assume we are at conflict with the world. Instead of living the wondrous life we could, we end up angry or depressed because everything else is against us or seems wrong.

We can defeat "self importance" by making a decision to live in the present moment, thereby dismantling how we perceive the world. We can choose a path and commit to it without guilt or regrets. It doesn't matter whether we fail or succeed because they are both equal. Peer pressure, envy, want and regret don't exist. It is the path alone that matters and we learn to see that any and all lives are equally promising or fertile. There are no elite and no poor. All are the same.

If you choose an occupation with heart, it will have that "personal power" that will help you live a lighter, healthier and less complicated life. Nothing comes from boredom or complacency. It comes from doing what you choose to do with heart and without internal dialogue. Getting rid of our preoccupation with our own happiness and actually "doing" something is the key.

Stop the relentless internal dialogue that feeds "self importance" and causes defeat. Never do what you don't want to do.

Symptoms of "self importance" are:
       Boredom
       You are hurt because people don't like you.
       You are afraid of an interview or audition.
       You are mad because someone is disrespectful towards you.
       Thinking any job is beneath you.
       Telling the bigger and better story.
       Giving a present and expecting something in return.
       Being disappointed in some one else.
       You become insulted at anything or by anyone.
       Preoccupation with others taking advantage of us.
       Guilt
       Believing in (fill in the blank) and forcing it on others.
       
       
What also makes us unhappy is to want. Cutting your wants to nothing will make even the most trivial gift a blessing. We must rid ourselves of emotional and material baggage so that we are light in spirit and prepared for what may come to us.

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Memory

The universe is full of matter. Matter in motion leaves a trail. That trail is Memory. When indians track an elk they are reading memory. Other examples of memory are:
       Grooves on a record
       Scarred rocks from advancing and receding glaciers
       Habits
       Ripples in the sand
       Books
       Fingerprints
       A river of Jasmine in the air
       Everything that moves or is moved upon........

Now, hypothetically, if there is an awareness of all memory then, that could constitute a universal consciousness.

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Things that are not always synonymous:

STARDOM and TALENT
WEALTH and INTELLIGENCE
OLD AGE and WISDOM
MIGHT and RIGHT
STUPIDITY and IGNORANCE
WEALTH and CLASS

Things that are synonymous:

INSURANCE and EXTORTION
ADVERTISEMENT and DECEIT
PATRIOTISM and BIGOTRY
BANKS and SLAVERS
TV and MEDIOCRITY
CAPITALISM and GREED

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THE STATUE OF LIBERTY INSCRIPTION

ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION

Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to be free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

REVISED VERSION

Keep your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to be free,
keep the refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed elsewhere.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door,
it reads NO Vacancy.

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

Nothing for now, but I'll use this spot to rant and rave.