A Restoration of Faith...

I just finished breakfast and was thinking about last night. For those who are not familiar, I work for a small car service in Los Angeles as a driver and though we don't do much in the way of "industry" business, we do some directly and via "farm outs" from other companies, going to the Spirit Awards.

Yesterday, I spent the day on one such farm out. I went to one of the Hotels on West Hollywood to pick up someone I had never heard of, a "Suzanne Davis" (not really, but it was something similar, we must protect the innocent). I called up to let them know that I was downstairs and waiting, to which I was told they were running a bit behind and would be down in about 30 minutes. Something about that voice sounded familiar, hmmm.....

About 30 minutes later, a young couple came down and came over to my car, God, they sure looked familiar. I asked, "Ms. Davis?" and she smiled and said "yes" and they got into my car. As they got in, Ms Davis said "Hi, my name is Neve and this is my brother Christian."


We drove to Santa Monica Beach where a collection of large white tents had been set up and I dropped them off and found a parking spot a short distance away. As I got out of the car, I ran into someone I hadn't seen in a few years as well as received an invite to lunch from one of our other drivers at the event.

I'm not going to go into exhaustive details on the day and everything that happened, but after the end of the show and the after party at the Shutters Hotel, we were joined by Alan Cumming and his partner Grant Shaffer. Alan had helped produce and acted in "Sweet Land", which won the Best First Feature award.

When we left the party, we went back to the hotel in West Hollywood so Neve could get something a little warmer to wear. They decided to grab some dinner in the restaurant and Christian came out to move his car, a good idea in West Hollywood with the "Parking Nazis".

While he was out, we chatted for a bit and I just knew that I knew him from somewhere. I mean, he's an actor, so I'm sure I've seen him before but this was something more, either it's on a personal level or something he was in that I truly loved. I had felt familiar since I picked them up and it was REALLY starting to get under my skin and bug me.

I called a friend and asked her to help me since she had a computer handy with an Internet connection. It didn't take long for me to feel like a complete ass. It turns out that Christian was in one of my favorite gay films of all time, "Trick".

It's the story of a young musical theatre writer who meets a gogo-boy and spends the rest of the night looking for a place to trick (catch a quickie). Needless to say, they don't have an easy time of it, between bitchy drag queens, broken hearted piano bar singers and a best friend who is completely clueless and self absorbed (played beautifully by Tori Spelling). Definitely worth seeing in my personal opinion.

I really wish I had gotten an opportunity to tell Christian just how much that film has meant to me over the years and that it will always hold a special place in my heart.

As a driver in Los Angeles, you meet a lot of people, some rich and famous and some just regular people who need to get somewhere. Most are decent people who couldn't care less. Of those who are famous or quite wealthy, they tend to be a bit wrapped up in their own little worlds and a bit dismissive of those they perceive to be their inferiors, like anyone not worth what they are or outside their circle of "special People". It's not just actors in this town, but it kind of like high school with all it's little cliques and such.

The funny thing is it kind of reminds me of when I lived in Long Beach many years ago. A friend and I would go to this club full of snotty, ego-centric pretty boys who wouldn't spit on me if I was on fire in the parking lot. The funny part was that when we would go to the bath-house and I would run into the same little stinkers who would practically drag me into their rooms to make out, fun if slightly bewildering, it was the early 80's.

When I have found myself past the guard gates, people assume that you belong there and accept you as an equal. If they only knew...

This was not an issue of any kind for me yesterday with the Campbells and Mr. Cumming and his partner, they were all so very nice and pleasant and made me feel glad to be spending the evening with them. If I were to try to describe the situation from a movie, I would guess that "54" would have the right scene, in the New Jersey coffee house on Christmas day, watch it and see what I mean.

After seeing so much of the vile and nasty behavior that many people do toward each other in the name of greed, selfishness and ego, it was an amazing breath of fresh air to spend an evening with such nice, real and authentic people that it truly helped to restore my faith that under all our silly nastiness as people, we can still be civil human beings and some of the best can still be famous at the same time.

A Response to My Dad.... Pt 2

OK, I admit to being surprised, my Dad actually wrote back shortly after that last message, about 4 hours later, according to the timestamps.

Instead of writing them separately, like I did in the previous entry, I am going to just put my second response. I accidentally lost the first one and had to write it out a second time. I liked the first version better, but didn't get a chance to spend enough time to replace it in its entirety.

This was mailed on February 4th, I have yet to get any comments...

---

Dear Robert,
I am not sure exactly what your reply has to do with my email.

Sorry about that, I get so many of these pseudo-patriotic e-mails that I may have unloaded my irritation and frustration onto you. Sorry about that.

I understand from it why you would like to change our leadership. However, your reply does give me reason to ask two questions.

Putting politics aside:

Do you believe that Radical Islam is any threat to the world or us?

Radical Islam unto itself, No. Al-Qaeda is a different subject, they have been a threat in the past and if we don't finish the mission in Afghanistan, they will likely be again. That war I am in complete agreement with and just wish the Administration would put a bit more attention to.

In my opinion, radical Islam is no more a threat than radical Zionists in Israel or radical Hindus in India. Personally, as far as this country goes, I am more concerned with radical Christians like the "Army of God" who have no qualms with committing murder, fire bombings and arson in their crusades to purge America of what they disagree with, in this case abortion and the doctors who perform them.

I am personally more concerned about the sect of Christians who believe that they can hurry the second coming by destroying the world around us. Talk about an arrogant state of being. Some have accused the administration to be part of or pandering to this group, I doubt it, I think it's just greed and power lust myself, always looks good until you project it into the future.

Strange that in a nation that prides itself on its freedoms and finds theocracies to be such terrible things (personally I agree completely with the last), we are trying to create a Christian theocracy in this nation. We call it "family values" or some other nice name, but look into history and see how people like Hitler used the common belief and fears of the people to get them to do what they never would have if brought out directly. If there is one thing that can be learned during the Third Reich, it's that it only takes a small percentage of people to manipulate the masses into allowing horrible acts in the name of power, tradition and/or purity.

If so, what efforts would you like to see our government implement to defeat that threat............in other words, what should be our strategy?

I think a re-evaluation of our foreign policy's tendency to bully people should be looked at as it seems to be detrimental to our stated goals. I have felt for the longest time that our tendency to act as if we are the only country who knows what's going on and to strong arm everyone into playing by our rules, no matter what the consequences doesn't help us, it makes us look like thugs on the world stage. Like it or not, our usual practice is still very much a colonialism technique that has become reviled outside our nation since many nations have been on the wrong end of that in the past.

It's about time we started talking with, not at, other nations, started taking into account that other cultures are valid and may need to be addressed when trying to work together and most of all, have respect for those who are different.

What would happen if we actually started following our proclaimed Christian values and treated others as we would want to be treated? Some people are not particularly honest in how they deal with things, but why should they feel like it is in their own best interest when we don't always present the truth ourselves?

I'm sure you think that nations would take advantage of any trusts that were put before them and I'll be the first to admit that there is difficulty, especially initially. But we are the sole big boy on the block, if we set a bad example, what's to make anyone want to trust us? We need to treat the rest of the world as younger siblings who need guidance, not threats and beatings, so that they may grow.

For example on the current world stage: Iran. The majority of people in Iran are fairly moderate and progressive and was working its way clear of the rule of the Ayatollahs until we scared the daylights out of them in Iraq and they voted Ahmadinejad into office to balance what they saw in the world (all my Iranian friend claim it was our country's policies and actions that got him elected). I have worked with and for many from Iran and other than feeling that we had meddled in their country with the Shah, basically like us a lot. They have become an Islamic Theocracy, but are surprisingly open to ideas. From our perspective, their President has been quite inflammatory, but from their perspective, he's actually been fairly tame. We can continue on our current path, to ignore their culture and government, making our demands and playing by our rule-book, and it will probably amount to nothing going forward. What if we were to sit down with all the involved parties and try to work out a solution that would address our concerns while at the same time be something presentable to the people he has to answer to back home in Tehran?

If I know you, you think this is quite simplistic and naive. Maybe. But I will tell you this, I am a firm believer that world is what we make of it, if we don't like what we have made, redo it. It takes work but nothing is impossible. The fact is that the world has gotten too small for squabbling children who would rather beat each other up than share their toys.

As far as on the domestic front, quit with the playing to fear and paranoia of the masses, it's counterproductive. The big problem with playing the fear card is that after awhile the people are afraid of everything, including the ones playing the card, it truly is a two edged sword.

I could go on and on, but I think I will stop here. The facts are not always clear and the dangers are great, but to change nothing and continue down our current path doesn't seem to bode well either. As to your quote from Blair, if we keep outsourcing all the manufacturing and industrial jobs to where the labor is substantially cheaper and replace those jobs with Starbucks, how long will more people want in than out?

A Response to My Dad....

The other day, my Dad sent me the following e-mail:

Thought for the day:

In case we find ourselves starting to believe all the anti-American sentiment and negativity, we should remember England's Prime Minister Tony Blair's words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America, he said:

"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in... And how many want out."

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I.

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM. AMEN!

This is the response I sent him... The last time I told him what I thought, I didn't hear from him for about 6 to 9 months and I have yet to get a comment on it.

---

I was going to edit this before I sent it, but I think I'll send it as is. You hit a nerve, not the one you might think. It really pisses me off with this idea that if one doesn't support the battle plan being set forth by the Administration, you don't support the troops. Since when did "difference of opinion" mean anti-American? I thought this country was finished with this stupidity during the McCarthy era, but I guess not.

So, I will ask these questions:

1. What ever happened to Osama bin-Laden wanted dead or alive?
2. What are we supposed to do with an Administration that in the worst case misrepresented to outright lied to get us into a war of choice, not necessity, and on the best case scenario was just 100% wrong on EVERY single assumption they made about Iraq?
3. What to do when they say that no one could have predicted the outcome of the war in Iraq when poppa Bush listed a near identical list of consequences in his autobiography when explaining why he didn't go to Bhagdad during the first Gulf War?
4. As far as domestically, what to do about a leadership that lets 1000 people die due to lack of basic planning in New Orleans when everyone else knew what was coming and new the levies had breached nearly 24 hours before Brownie and Bush claim to have known

Sorry Dad, but where I started loosing respect for the Republican party during the 80's, leaned to despise them in the 90's, I wouldn't be to upset to see many of them tarred and feathered while being run out of town on a rail for sheer incompetence. I'll tell you what, if the people continue to sit on their apathetic butts and let Bush go into Iran, they deserve EVERYTHING that will come as the consequences of that act.

Robert
--------------------------------------------
I'll send you a longer reply some other time (never mind, this is long enough), but to put it succinctly, I will quote my favorite recent bumper-sticker:

Support the Troops
Question their boss,
it's the American way.

It's sad when we wrap ourselves in flags and questionable patriotism and then say that it is un-American to question the people who are supposedly working on the behalf of the people when the majority of those people just want some straight answers about the purpose and goals. Such as what specific goals are there? How many trained Iraqi troops and police? Specific answers, not ideological wish lists. Whenever asked, we get nebulous statements and non-answers. I don't trust them anymore, and I am getting concerned about a nation that would rather sit on it's butt and get it's news from questionable sound bites than to actually look behind the curtain and see if the truth is what it is made out to be.

It's funny that recently, on a completely unrelated matter, I came across an amazing quote from Upton Sinclair:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

If ever their was a time that I wish every American had read "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451" it is recently. Strange that when I was a kid, you taught me that the ends do not justify the means, this recent turn in this country has shown they don't give a damn about the means as long as the ends are what they want. It amazes me that a guy as smart as you are would actually listen to the State of the Union and not say, "Huh?"

They spend nearly $2 Billion a week on a war the country doesn't support. The strategy has shown little if any signs of working, but instead of sitting and rethinking it, we'll just through a few more soldiers in the line of fire. Even the Generals don't think it's a good idea, except for those who are afraid of being reassigned or loosing their rank like everyone else who has voiced a questioning or dissenting opinion to this administration.

You are too smart to fall for this basic Fear 101 tactic that has been played since 9/11 and the misrepresentations of the facts by the administration and the media are just wrong. Now this is my opinion, and like it or not, as an American it is my RIGHT to ask and receive answers from the people in charge. I heard Rush Limbaugh the other day comment that he believes that Liberals are wanting us to loose this war and will do anything to make it happen. This coming from the guy who basically admitted to lying to his audience after the Nov elections to "carry the water" for the Republicans who didn't deserve it. His tone has changed back to the party line, but I was listening when he said it. The fact is, I don't know anyone who wants us to loose the war, but I am aware of millions of people who have seen no signs that a "throw more soldiers onto the heap" will help. They don't want failure, but they do want someone to think about possible re-evaluating the strategy. Before you say that's what the President did before announcing his "Surge", I knew in November when he said he was going to "consult with the experts" what the outcome would be, he doesn't listen to anyone or anything that doesn't agree with him.

This administration has lost my respect and my trust over the last 6 years, and if the American people do not start to stand up and do something, this country is doomed to be controlled by corporate greed and special interests, lubed by the blood and sweat of the people who they are supposedly working for. This honestly seems right to you? Strange that you told me you couldn't believe me because I had lied to you, how many times has this administration lied, or misrepresented the truth to serve their goals? You trust THEM?!?

God save America, because Washington sure won't!

OK, enough rambling, I need to get a shower and go to work.

Connectedness and Why I do this...

I am amazingly tired today for some reason. I got plenty of sleep and thought it was pretty sound, I didn't wake up or anything, but today, I am completely wiped, so I will make this pretty short and sweet. It was meant to be a thought anyhow.

Yesterday, I was driving to LAX and say a bumper-sticker that made me think... It said, "Remember you are unique, just like everyone else". Just slightly profound.

The main thing that I wanted to make a note of was something I was thinking about after watching something this morning. I finally found a copy of "Joan of Arcadia Season 2" and have started watching them.

I'm just on episode 5, where the school is having elections for Student Body President, etal. Joan starts helping the geeky guy that fired her in first season from the Yearbook staff. He is running and you know that a guy who has a 40+ page "Mission Statement" is doomed to failure when up against the Drama Club princess and the most popular as well as hottest jock in school.

Someone in the "hot jock" camp finds out that geek-boy's father is in prison and makes sure that everyone is aware of it, so Joan decides to go after a little dirt of her own and while following him around school, catches him with the biggest drug dealer in school. But the two are not together for the sale of illicit substances, it turns out, but to have a private moment together and a quick kiss, they are a couple? Joan and her friend manage to catch this kiss on a cellphone much to the terror of the guys.

The plan goes through a few permutations on how to disseminate this tidbit of information, but at the last moment, Joan realizes it would be wrong and refuses to use the information.

Later that evening, Joan and her mother are talking about things and this all comes out to which Joan comments on how every time she thought about the guy, all she saw was his fear and terror and how it made her remember that on some level we are all connected and wonder why it is so difficult to remember this fact.

We call ourselves Christians (to be Christ-like), Muslim (one who submits) and a whole host of other traditions, religions and beliefs. With all these paths and ways of reaching God, why do we forget the goal so often and show the deepest sides of our spiritual depravity, it's no wonder that Christians are of the belief that mankind is inherently evil and no good can be found within him.

I've commented on it before, but once again I will state that all the religions have a common belief in the idea that everyone is an eternal spiritual entity that is only inhabiting this physical form for a short time and continues on after death in one way or another. Shame we can't remember this simple fact and make it our starting point, just imagine how our view of the world would change and how we relate to each other.

I have spent the majority of the last few years trying to shift my perspective from the common source, focused on "me" as the center of the universe, to one of relating to EVERYTHING from a view of spirit that is just visiting and have watched the world make some wondrous changes around me. I am nowhere near being able to stay in that state of mind all the time, but it gets longer every time I stumble.

How would your life change if you viewed everything in your life from the perspective of your soul's entertaining drama and not as the reality we take it to be? When we change this view, the world changes with you and you find that what was SOOO difficult earlier looks more like what it says in the Bible about the time coming when people will see the Devil for what he truly is and ask "is it one such as this that caused the kingdoms to tremble?"

Judeo/Christian Paradigms: Karma vs Salvation pt 1

As a Southern Baptist during my youth, I was taught that the Bible was the un-erring word of God and I must accept all that it has to say as literal truth. I always found that to be a bit problematic, though until many years later, I didn't know why.

One of the things that always bothered me as a youngster was the name "Jesus Christ". The problem for me was the word Christ as part of Jesus' name. Christ (Christos) is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah and both actually mean "the Anointed One." So saying "Jesus Christ" is the same as saying "Jesus the Anointed One", in other words, it is a title, not a proper name.

So what does this have to do with interpretation of the Old and New Testaments?

The Old testament is made up of several sections which in Hebrew are referred to as the "Tanakh" which is an anagram for:

• Torah - Instruction
• Nevi'im - The Prophets
• Kh'tuvim - The Writings

The Torah consists of the first 5 books in the Christian Old Testament; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In Genesis, which basically means"the beginnings", we have the story of the creation of the planet and all life, including humans, the fall of man and then we basically start the following of the line that would eventually meet Abraham and grow into the nation of Israel.

(As far as the two creations go, that's a piece unto itself, so we are not really going to get into it here but save it for a future entry.) We are going to catch up with the story in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve are having a happy existence where the "serpent" comes to temp "The woman" (she's not named Eve till after they are expelled from the garden) into going against the will of God, or so it is usually stated. Now what God had actually said was:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:16-17 (KJV)

This was said to Adam before Eve was even created, so she must have gotten it second-hand from Adam which might explain her misstatements during the "temptation". After Eve's creation and a mention of the idea of marriage, defined as two becoming as one, the second chapter ends with a very important statement:

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:25 (KJV)

If this has you snickering about the fact they were naked, you might find the Beavis & Butt-Head website more to your liking (but I digress). Most people don't think about this little blurb here and the later reference but Moses [the traditional author] makes a point of inserting these statements in the story and I am sure they are there for a reason.

Chapter 3 starts with the serpent "tempting" Eve. I always wondered where she got the added "instruction" that to touch the fruit was dangerous. Was "touching" forbidden by God or was Adam trying to be helpful and add to what God said with , I'm sure, the best of intentions.

Immediately after they have both eaten, we have the following:

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 3:7 (KJV)

So, what we have is Moses making a point of telling us that they were naked and unashamed immediately before succumbing to temptation and knowing of their nakedness immediately afterwards and were ashamed enough that they made aprons for themselves. Why?

Genesis, the Beginning, tells us something very important here. The apparent answer is that in eating of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" caused them to become body conscious and loose sight of their true selves and natures as spiritual beings. Some would say they lost their innocence and mean that they now knew evil, but if you look at the other definitions for innocence, you get the following from the "The American Heritage® Dictionary":

• Freedom from guile, cunning, or deceit; simplicity or artlessness.
• Lack of worldliness or sophistication; naiveté.
• Lack of knowledge or understanding; ignorance.

What would you call it when one goes from a state of spiritual purity, inhabiting a physical form but not being overrun by it and going to the opposite end of the spectrum where one forgets their spiritual nature and is completely deluded by the physical world, I would actually view it as entering into innocence in a way, since they were now naive and ignorant of their true state.

So, what about God's statement that when they eat of the tree, that day, they would surely die? The serpent rebuffs it and says:

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Genesis 3:5 (KJV)

Now for as much as we usually make it out that the serpent misled Eve, other than the bit about being like "gods" which is in question (though God seems to think so in Genesis 3:22), the fact is that their eyes were opened, they did know good and evil. Obviously they did not die in the usual sense so if God was correct, then some other death must be the subject. With this, I find the death of their awareness of their true natures to be what died and as we will get into in a moment, the becoming attached to the body and the transitory things of creation causing death to the physical body.

This is really interesting in that the first thing they became was completely bodily conscious to the exclusion of their previous awareness of their natures to the extent that shame sets in immediately to cover themselves. They were so absorbed in this mental state that when God comes to the garden to visit, they hide themselves. When they admit this new understanding to God, the question is immediately asked, "Who told thee that thou wast naked?"

We follow this with Adam blaming his "helpmate" who passes the blame on to the serpent who gets cursed.

It is now that the beginning of the paradigm that is continued throughout the Tanakh and brought into the law of Moses, that of the world of Karma, Maya, the definition of what the world of "body consciousness" and attachment are:

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:16-19 (KJV)

(I have to wonder how many children Eve had previously had while living in the garden since it sounds as if she had experienced it previously "I will greatly multiply", but that might be for another time.)

It is here that we start with life becoming defined as the function of the labours of mankind, the beginning of Karma in that the actions cause reaction and the labours produce their rewards. This is the paradigm that we see throughout the Old Testament. From this point until the New Testament we are about history of Israel and the "penalty" of action and, since we are now separated from God, the beginnings of the idea that sacrifice must be performed.

We are going to stop here, except for a couple of quick things...

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Genesis 3:22-24 (KJV)

Now God had said earlier that to eat of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" would cause death, and it seems that here we have God making sure that it would happen by keeping Adam from the "tree of life" for fear that he would become immortal which was not a good idea for physically fixated beings.

Buddha would find this of interest since he would agree with the basic premise here. His "Four Noble Truths" address this in a most direct and succinct manner:

1. Life is Suffering:
   Physical existence is made up of temporary, created items that come and go: impermanence.
2. Suffering comes from Attachment:
   It is our tendency to want to hold onto the pleasant and avoid the unpleasant that creates the pain in our existences.
3. Suffering can be Conquered:
   This condition of suffering need not be forever and can be defeated.
4. The Eight-Fold Path:
   A collection of tools and premises to use to break the cycle.

Genesis has prepared the groundwork for the First and Second Truths of the Buddha. As for the Third Truth, this is a promise that it need not stay that way forever. In the Old Testament, we start with the idea that our "fallen" state may be corrected via the concept of the sacrifice, the usage of others to "pay" for our wrongdoings.

We will continue from here and go into this paradigm of sacrifice and the ultimate sacrifice as presented in the New Testament with Jesus in part 2.