A Living Magazine - Day 167 - The Kingdom of Choice is Upon Us

When the watch alarm went off at 6:30 am, I rubbed my eyes opened the tent flap and stuck my head out. No, no dog. Nice area, with a lot of other good spots to choose from...

After I packed up, I took a picture of the spot. I hadn't realized the night before that one of the trees arched right over it. That would make a good landmark for finding it again on this night...

I was thinking a lot about my experience with the dog. As you might recall, many times I have seen metaphors for personal relationships, social issues, and international situations in the behavior of animals and the growth systems of plants. For me, the struggle with the dog might have been symbolic of my personal wrestling against fear, and that (as a good friend indicated to me in an email afterward--paraphrasing) when the final moment of tension came, I was most concerned about not inflicting pain, and that was my motivation for asking the Universe for help. Socially, it showed me that my assumptions as a human about an angry stray dog, were as misplaced as anyone's assumptions about each other.

But by far, what occurred to me most strongly was that holding off against a threat, while still remaining strong enough to face it, was the correct course of action. Because I didn't fear, didn't become paranoid and didn't give into overreaction, neither of us had to be injured. If I had chosen to run toward the dog and try to fight it, I would have lost the ability to make other rational choices, until the confrontation had worked itself out arbitrarily.

With all that is going on in the world - radical, overseas, religious terrorism now beginning to impact America on its own soil more frequently - the analogy of not overreacting was obvious and patently plain.

I like American freedom. I depend on it to travel around my own country without being suspected or feared preemptively by law enforcement, just because of the way I look, or the beliefs that I publish here at the blog.

Yes, I have been discriminated against, because my lifestyle has been stereotyped as "homeless"; a meme implying "vagrant", "freeloader", "lazy", "bum", "derelict", "drifter", "hobo", "transient", "vagabond". The poverty profiling of such dirty, bottom of the barrel, people as myself, is based entirely upon appearance. There is the obvious backpack prejudice, as illustrated by the suspicion seen on the faces of store employees, or passers by. So, am I really a "free" citizen of my own country--being caucasian, with zero criminal record, working hard every day, well educated, well spoke, well written, relatively healthy, not on food stamps, not on welfare..? Not a friggin chance.

People choose to reject me, before meeting me. They choose to make up a little story about me in their minds, to help them feel better about themselves. They choose the us-and-them stance. Oh, to be part of the herd!

In churches the herd is euphemized as a "flock". And, of course, that is what sheep gather into. Our oft-used term, "sheeple" should really apply to all groups based on ideology that being the thought patterns of group-chosen individuals who separate themselves from other groups of people. But, many folks don't draw that out more broadly, and consider that all these groups together constitute more than just the individuals in them, but the opposite tendency; that of needing to divide the whole. If this counterpointing is examined more objectively - the herd mentality and the division mentality - what do we come up with? CHAOS.

Humans naturally - at least when they are babies - cannot stand being separated from other people, anyone will do in a pinch, but Momma and Papa are preferred. It is only after they grow through the system and are "educated" by adults who have already CHOSEN which groups they want to feel proud of belonging to, that the child-reaching adulthood is forced into the unfortunate and limiting position of choosing his/her particular groups.

Groups exist for the group, not the individuals in that group. If this weren't true, and individuals were empowered to be more individualistic by the group, they'd leave the group, for pete sake! so they MUST hold group values above their own values. They are taught that it's more noble to have allegiance and loyalty to the group, than to the individuals in the group, or even in their lives.

So, instead of individuals working things out, one on one, face to face, they use their group loyalties in an attempt to do it. Now, because leaving a group you have invested your allegiance in is very difficult, you will also find it difficult to trust the people in other groups. Therefore, the groups, have disagreements with each other, oppose each other, fight each other, and if things get bad enough, go to war with and kill each other. This mentality (the us-and-them that I spoke of above), can ultimately only lead to the inevitable thought: In order that our group can survive, the other group must die.  

These things turned over and over in my mind. Was there any other explanation for why whole cultures were now on the brink of war with each other? Families used to fight, then cities, then regions, then nations, than religions, then international ideologies... But in our age all of these have begun to happen at once! It is beginning to appear that people don't really WANT peace. They have tipped over the fulcrum and are now beginning to CHOOSE conflict over peace.

Why? It seems obvious to me. Conflict is MUCH easier to understand than living in peace. Conflict requires only group-self-service and group-self-preservation. The self has become the group, but not in a good way.

I meandered around the streets after writing at Dunkin Donuts for a while, looking for a place to have my daily meal. I stumbled by a "China - Super Buffet" sign, and my stomach rumbled. Almost, involuntarily, I turned into the mall with the buffet and walked like a zombie toward it. Instead of saying, "brains", I said, "sushi". This would also be a good place to finish my daily post! Win, win!

But right before I crashed through the window to devour my Asian food, I caught site of an Academy Sports store. I am sorely in need of new boots or shoes, a new fleece (or lighter jacket to replace by winter coat), and maybe even a new backpack?

I took a tour of the very extensive and wide price-ranging inventory and was quite inspired. I believe I will get a pair of hiking shoes to replace my boots, for this warmer region. I saw some great convertible pants too (since my zipper is broken on the ones I have), and, lo and behold, I finally saw a backpack that could almost compete with how useful Saggy has been...

I made sure not to turn around, or Saggy might get jealous. Ha! But it shouldn't worry. The one thing missing in this other pack is a pocket wide and deep enough to handle the sleeping bag (nicknamed, "Snaggy").

I did eventually get to the buffet, and paced myself through a couple plates, while I grabbed an Xfinity signal and worked on the post a little more. The price was outstanding ($9.83 after taxes, for a Sprite and as much as I could eat--which did include some fairly good sushi). Then I left for Subway, to finish the dog post, which I did...

The way the world is ultimately set up, based on individual choices, or lack thereof, kept my mind occupied as I walked back toward Hackmeyer Park (where I'd slept the night before and dealt with the dog). And, I think I found a way to describe the phenomenon of the power of choice...

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THE KINGDOM OF CHOICE IS UPON US

I do truly wonder if America deserves the peace it wants

Every now and then great men and women (and I don't consider myself among their caste) have arisen at crucial times in history. They have accomplished what I only hope - perhaps laughably, in vain - to accomplish.

They have seen the light of truth offered not only to them but to the world, through them, via what I have called, their "Sparks", and they have called by all kinds of different terms. Some were religious, some were atheists, some socially conscious, some politically radical, some scientifically inclined.

But the world rejected them in their lifetimes--often imprisoned them, tortured them, killed them and those who believed in their message of rational peace, love and the pride-sacrifice these philosophical leaders demonstrated for their desire to turn things around; to wake the world up for a time, that humans collectively might live more peaceably, live together and love each other more dearly.

I have observed many things since beginning my own inadequate, flawed, and weak work. Not the least of these is that the *affirmations* for things that people KNOW in their hearts are correct, but refuse to put into action in their own lives, can be VERY, VERY notable by their absence.

One of humanity's greatest strengths is to - when it is faced with great peril, possibly even complete extinction (as we saw several times during the Cold War) - SEE the edge, and not walk over it.

But, have we taken this strength for granted? Do we just assume that eventually something will save us? How many times, as we grow more technologically powerful and morally weaker, will we give ourselves the luxury of that choice?

It isn't God doing these things to us, nor offering a way out from them. If you believe in God, you've already been told by your ministers, priests, amams, rabbis, gurus, cult leaders, and hopefully by your own worshipful intuitions, the way out, and should not need to be reminded.

It isn't nature, herself, randomly swinging objects in front of us, while also evolving us fast enough to avoid them. If you are a materialist/humanist, you already understand that nature is a well-balanced physical machine of extraordinary complexity and well-functioning efficiency, with or without us.

It isn't the THINGS we create, use as tools, worship as consumers, or utilize to drop on each other as thermonuclear weapons, that will simultaneously be able to *save* us from ourselves. The scientist knows better than anyone that things are just that: things. They have no mind of their own. They are simply ideas, excreted by the human mind into the material world as physical objects.

When all of the substances (read as philosophies) that extract and distill the problems AND solutions to those problems, is evaporated off, we are left only with the people sitting beside us (or maybe on the screens in front of us). No God, no natural process, no tool exists in all of universal reality which could be more useful to the establishment of Peace on Earth.

Choice (the free human will) is our only true ruler (the king or queen) in this world. We live and die by it; love and hate by it; build and destroy by it. and it is not collective choice to which I refer, but individual choice--INNER choice, expressed as OUTER action.

In my writing and many experiences at the ground level of the country, it has been my will-choices which have not let me walk off the edges of my own personal cliffs. I KNOW for absolute certainty, that it is a tremendous power. It is the greatest power on earth. It is transforming my life, clearing my mind, increasing my intellectual abilities, sharpening my other five senses, and allowing me to see farther into the future and appreciate more about the past--not just about my own life, but about the lives of other people.

The greater one understands the past and the future, the more focused one can be upon the present. In FACT, one realizes that ultimately there is ONLY the present moment. It contains all of eternity (past and future). There is nothing without the present moment.

Will-choice is the groove on the old phonograph record with which the needle-tip of the present rides along. The motion of the record is the real-world *action* derived by choosing. Deciding not to choose is also a choice, and action becomes thereby arbitrary, random and chaotic. But, not even caring about choice at all (because of an ignorance about how important it is to action) negates the ability to choose, and before you know it, the song is over.

Do Americans deserve the peace they desire? Now we will find out, as they express their choices or not. But, for those who ignore the power of choice altogether and are simply riding the grooves spun by the actions of other people's choices, the song is already over in the future, and THEY are the reason why.

The Kingdom of Choice is Upon Us--NOW. Therefore, whether we *deserve* peace is no longer a rhetorical question. Answer it, through action.

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I stopped at the Shell Station and bought some beef jerky to try and make peace with the dog if I met him again. When I reached Lleyn Avenue, a police car was sitting right there. It was a guy I saw in the Subway parking lot. He wasn't following me but he had seen me at in that parking lot and now he'd seen me coming near the neighborhood. There was no way in hell I was going to walk down that street by him, with the pack and the tent poles; with no particular place to go if he asked.

So, it was Plan B time, off to a place about two blocks away, just up the small river, in a thick woods area adjacent to Springhill Memorial Drive. I had the butterflies again, as it was an unknown place. But made the trek and found a dirt road that looked unused from the branches lying laterally across it. Then I found a place just off of it, and stood there for about a half hour. I heard nothing in the woods. So the tent and tarp went up and the Alex went in. It was quite level and smooth. Once in the tent I felt quite at home. It was giving me a real sense of security lately. It may be made of nylon, but I understood now, that was as good as being in house. I fell asleep by about 9:45 pm.

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