I remember being 9 or 10 years old and my father handing me a pamphlet that said, "All Black people should move back to Africa to Liberia or something like this. However, because I was 9 or 10 years old I knew there was something really wrong with this pamphlet. However, I couldn't really say much to my father at the time about any of this for a variety of reasons. However, by my 20s I had my father becoming more of a Kennedy Democrat and less like this like he had been brainwashed by his own father before I was born. Also, even though my father was valedictorian of his high School Senior class he wasn't allowed to go to college like I was. And in a public college in California in the 1960s and early 1970s you are going to hear any viewpoint imaginable and you were sort of forced to deal with this then too from the most idealistic liberal point of view which often was impractical to the most rightist Nazi point of view also. And you might see people literally come to blows and hit each other with signs from different points of view. I was never like this though but many people were and would get bloody then at the drop of a hat.
I was always more of a peacemaker between people and didn't want to watch people die or be maimed so I always tried to help people stay alive and not kill each other and I could sometimes get away with this because of how tall and imposing I was in tallness. People were forced to take me seriously because I grew up to be 6 feet 5 inches tall. So, even though I wasn't a fighter and never started fights if someone attacked me I would hit them 5 times harder than they hit me and that would be it. So, people didn't try to pick fights with me much because of this.
But, I also heard extreme points of view from the far right to the far left even within different parts of my family. So, even though I was an only child I had cousins and uncles and aunts and grandparents all with their own individual and unique viewpoints, some of which I agreed with and some of which I didn't.
So, in this sense I was very lucky to be raised mostly in a Libertarian point of view but I found that there are Republican Libertarians and Democratic Libertarians too.
It is the most ancient point of view of Americans since 1776 which is basically: "YOU have the opportunity here in the U.S. to succeed or fail or to die trying to succeed."
This is the best way I have to describe what a Libertarian point of view is which is historical for people in the 1700s here in the U.S. This is what I was taught the most which is I could succeed or fail but I had to die trying to succeed if I didn't succeed at first then try try again until I died trying.
Luckily, I have been very intelligent about my life like my father and grandfather were before me and they taught me pragmatism and my mother taught me compassion.
So, I guess you could call me a compassionate pragmatist or a pragmatic compassionate person one of the two or both.
So, I think once I began to study Tibetan Buddhism the idea of a "Dragon of Compassion" came to me one day and I began to write about what this means. Also, in 1983 I became a golden Dragon as big as a house or other building in a Vision quest of no water or food in the summer for 4 days and nights. If you don't eat or drink anything and pray all the time you might turn into something interesting during those 4 days too without water or food in your spiritual visions.
However, a cautionary note: "If your physical or mental health isn't really stable BEFORE you do a vision quest I wouldn't recommend this because your visions are going to be MORE REAL than reality is normally. And are you ready for this? end note.
Also, this works better if you are in the wilderness somewhere. However, some people are scared in the wilderness and I have always felt the most at home in the wilderness away from everyone. I don't always feel safe with bears around and other animals but I always feel at home in the wilderness.
By God's Grace
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