California is the 8th largest Gross Domestic Product in the world when placed among all nations. Since California is not allowed to go bankrupt the only way out of this mess is benefit cuts or new taxes. The balance in the state legislature will require both. Those hurt the most are the poorest and many state subsidized business like old age homes that take Medi-Cal(like medicare only for Californians). Under this program a person put into an old age home pays about half through social security and medicare and the state funds half of the funds to pay for the old age home.
I was looking at the news recently and even though there are many gang related murders in places like Salinas in Central California because the state will take local funds from cities and counties to stay solvent, many police officers in places like Salinas will be laid off even with continuing gang related murders taking place under present plans by the state government.
I know that Californians tend to be very innovative but right now both the Republicans and the Democrats are so hamstrung by money from special interests they don't seem to care about the poor falling through cracks and off a cliff who have nowhere to turn except for God and friends and relatives.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Bobby Jean
When I was 21 Bobby Jean who was then in her early 40s and still a platinum blonde knockout with kids my age, saved my life. She was as psychically gifted as I but just in a different way that was compatible to me. She went to my parents church and has said to me "I saw how they were destroying and slowly killing you and God came to me and told me how to save you. You were my mission."
Thank you God for sending my Bobby Jean. Without her I don't know if I would be here today. Likely I would have self destructed at 21.
Bobby Jean took me home and introduced me to her mother and proceeded to invoke angels into her living room. Since we were and are both very gifted in regard to angels I was convinced that I didn't have to take my life because I could live with angels right here on earth. Being around angels is very intoxicating if you have ever experienced it, much like some movies about angels that I have seen over the years. Once she taught me how to invoke angels into any place I was I could always live with angels which I found very helpful once I got married at age 26 and had my first child, a son, who is now 35 and married and just returned from a Hawaii Honeymoon.
So, from the first moments of pregnancy I invoked angels to protect and guide my children. Every night when I kissed and still kiss my youngest good night on the forhead I say, "Angels Be with you." And they are still there and they are still coming ever since Bobby Jean invoked the Angels and showed me how to do this too.
When I talked with Bobby Jean today she told me that Gale Storm was her friend when she worked in Hollywood as a model and she knew here well at the studio. I said, "I immediately like her as a child because she ran energy just like you, a very joyful person." Bobby Jean was very complimented by my telling her this. She said, "I realized that Gale Storm was five years older than me because I'm 82.
I've never met anyone quite like Bobby Jean before. She's so joyful all the time many people just can't handle it. But every time I talk to her it is like a breath of fresh air. At 82 she still spends a lot of time on the phone and praying for everyone who is having a problem of any kind that she knows. She's still an amazing bright light at 82 who was a friend of Gale Storm's at the studio in the 1940s and 1950s. What a small world it is!
September 9th 2015:
In Summer 2006 I was in Bishop California for the High School Rodeo Championships because childhood friend of my wife's daughter was a champion barrel rider. It was hot and I was having difficulty with the heat that summer there and I received a call on my cell phone from Bobby Jean. She said, "I think Richard might be dead, Fred." Richard was a church childhood friend of mine and he had about 7 phones including a cell phone and a radio phone in his car. So, I left a message on each phone in the hopes I could get a message back. Nope. After two days I called his sister and she called the police and he was gone and had been gone for about a week. This was hard to take because he was only a couple of years older than I and I was about 58 then. Later his sister flew out to give his memorial and My son and I went to it and paid our repects to his sister and her husband and others who were there.
But, somehow she knew he was gone before I did. She was always pretty amazing about stuff like that. At the time I had no idea anything was wrong with my friend at all. So, I had no sense of this at all which kind of surprised me at the time.
But, often for me at least, (unless it is a big earthquake or something like that) I can usually be so focused sometimes that I miss things like this. Or, likely he didn't want anyone to know he was in trouble. Or it just happened so suddenly even he had no idea when it happened himself. But, either way my friend was someone instrumental in choosing to go to college and make something of my life which is someone everyone should have in their lives. In the mid 1960s not everyone chose to go to college if they were guys. A lot just died in Viet Nam or got messed up by it and never recovered from it ever. So, I was very lucky I didn't have to go and that I had a future and a family and three kids and step kids and God children in my life. So, Thanks Bobby Jean for keeping me alive when I was 21 and thanks Richard for making sure I went to college too.
Thank you God for sending my Bobby Jean. Without her I don't know if I would be here today. Likely I would have self destructed at 21.
Bobby Jean took me home and introduced me to her mother and proceeded to invoke angels into her living room. Since we were and are both very gifted in regard to angels I was convinced that I didn't have to take my life because I could live with angels right here on earth. Being around angels is very intoxicating if you have ever experienced it, much like some movies about angels that I have seen over the years. Once she taught me how to invoke angels into any place I was I could always live with angels which I found very helpful once I got married at age 26 and had my first child, a son, who is now 35 and married and just returned from a Hawaii Honeymoon.
So, from the first moments of pregnancy I invoked angels to protect and guide my children. Every night when I kissed and still kiss my youngest good night on the forhead I say, "Angels Be with you." And they are still there and they are still coming ever since Bobby Jean invoked the Angels and showed me how to do this too.
When I talked with Bobby Jean today she told me that Gale Storm was her friend when she worked in Hollywood as a model and she knew here well at the studio. I said, "I immediately like her as a child because she ran energy just like you, a very joyful person." Bobby Jean was very complimented by my telling her this. She said, "I realized that Gale Storm was five years older than me because I'm 82.
I've never met anyone quite like Bobby Jean before. She's so joyful all the time many people just can't handle it. But every time I talk to her it is like a breath of fresh air. At 82 she still spends a lot of time on the phone and praying for everyone who is having a problem of any kind that she knows. She's still an amazing bright light at 82 who was a friend of Gale Storm's at the studio in the 1940s and 1950s. What a small world it is!
September 9th 2015:
In Summer 2006 I was in Bishop California for the High School Rodeo Championships because childhood friend of my wife's daughter was a champion barrel rider. It was hot and I was having difficulty with the heat that summer there and I received a call on my cell phone from Bobby Jean. She said, "I think Richard might be dead, Fred." Richard was a church childhood friend of mine and he had about 7 phones including a cell phone and a radio phone in his car. So, I left a message on each phone in the hopes I could get a message back. Nope. After two days I called his sister and she called the police and he was gone and had been gone for about a week. This was hard to take because he was only a couple of years older than I and I was about 58 then. Later his sister flew out to give his memorial and My son and I went to it and paid our repects to his sister and her husband and others who were there.
But, somehow she knew he was gone before I did. She was always pretty amazing about stuff like that. At the time I had no idea anything was wrong with my friend at all. So, I had no sense of this at all which kind of surprised me at the time.
But, often for me at least, (unless it is a big earthquake or something like that) I can usually be so focused sometimes that I miss things like this. Or, likely he didn't want anyone to know he was in trouble. Or it just happened so suddenly even he had no idea when it happened himself. But, either way my friend was someone instrumental in choosing to go to college and make something of my life which is someone everyone should have in their lives. In the mid 1960s not everyone chose to go to college if they were guys. A lot just died in Viet Nam or got messed up by it and never recovered from it ever. So, I was very lucky I didn't have to go and that I had a future and a family and three kids and step kids and God children in my life. So, Thanks Bobby Jean for keeping me alive when I was 21 and thanks Richard for making sure I went to college too.
One Million Descriptions
I have heard it said that there are at least 1 million descriptions of any reality. I would only counter that there are an infinite number of descriptions of any reality. It doesn't matter if it is a pen on your desk, there are an infinite number of descriptions of that pen in infinite realities. To deny this is to only insult God, or Gods or Universe depending upon your point of view.
So when we speak about beings like Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucious, and thousands of other living Saints of all relgions to limit God to one point of view or even any one religion is to insult God and to limit God and to blaspheme God.
The point of view that I or you have is one of an infinite array of points of view of God, if you believe in God or even philosophically if you don't there are still an infinite number of points of view about anything.
Because of the certain knowledge of this an intellectual grasp of all this is not possible, only an experiential grasp of this is possible. For example, all the physics and math problems one could design regarding surfing on a wave on the ocean for example, doesn't actually help one to ride a surf board on a wave. Only ones practice, instinct and coordination actually allows a person to surf the board. There is theory and there is reality.
The same with Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu and all the others. Each of these people may or may not have been an intellectual genius. However, it is certain that each of them was
and Intuitive genius in action. Because only by being in the right place and the right time could they have accomplished all they did. Only by allowing an infinite amount of possibilities(which is God or the natural physical properties of the universe) could they have accomplished what they did. By allowing all things to be possible in every moment they allowed miracles to take place by being in the right place and time in a compassionate enlightened state at all moments. By doing this each of them manifested perfection on earth. Understanding this one thing is a primary key to your own enlightenment and the enlightenment of everyone you know and every being in the universe.
So when we speak about beings like Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucious, and thousands of other living Saints of all relgions to limit God to one point of view or even any one religion is to insult God and to limit God and to blaspheme God.
The point of view that I or you have is one of an infinite array of points of view of God, if you believe in God or even philosophically if you don't there are still an infinite number of points of view about anything.
Because of the certain knowledge of this an intellectual grasp of all this is not possible, only an experiential grasp of this is possible. For example, all the physics and math problems one could design regarding surfing on a wave on the ocean for example, doesn't actually help one to ride a surf board on a wave. Only ones practice, instinct and coordination actually allows a person to surf the board. There is theory and there is reality.
The same with Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu and all the others. Each of these people may or may not have been an intellectual genius. However, it is certain that each of them was
and Intuitive genius in action. Because only by being in the right place and the right time could they have accomplished all they did. Only by allowing an infinite amount of possibilities(which is God or the natural physical properties of the universe) could they have accomplished what they did. By allowing all things to be possible in every moment they allowed miracles to take place by being in the right place and time in a compassionate enlightened state at all moments. By doing this each of them manifested perfection on earth. Understanding this one thing is a primary key to your own enlightenment and the enlightenment of everyone you know and every being in the universe.
The World is Changing 7-1-09
The world in California is starting to remind me of when I went to India in 1985. There I found that one couldn't rely on mechanical things that much or timetables in regard to Steam trains or buses that much. Things just operated differently unless you were staying at a 5 star hotel with a private driver or something. I'm finding things changing here in California and in the U.S. in general. What are the two things that have changed everything? First, Global Warming and second the bankrupting of our nation through two wars run simultaneously since 2002. What is the solution? It won't be a return to life as usual. Of that I am fairly certain. It will be a change as great as the 20th century was from the 19th Century but it will be very different this time because of Global warming and the famines it will inevitably cause by drought or too much precipitation depending upon where one lives on earth. Rising Ocean levels will also erode or do away with many coastal or low lying cities this century as well.
How can one obtain and maintain wealth on an individual and family level? In order to do this one must first be rational. Because without rationality one becomes too erratic and then cannot legally obtain and maintain wealth.
One of the first steps to this beyond a good education is to eat healthy food. For example, eating in fast food restaurants or even some restaurants that over salt, over sugar or who add MSG(monosodium glutamate) strain ones rationality and even can lead to a trip to the hospital from too much salt, too much sugar or just temporary craziness from MSG.
So, just getting food is not enough because some prepared foods are not going to maintain your health or rationality and will prevent you making good decisions for your ongoing survival.
Next, if possible try to use herbal alternatives to synthetic medicines. Go see an herbalist to see if a medicine you take can be organic rather than synthetic like most medicines in America are now. For example, I chose to take Armour Thyroid which is taken from pigs rather than synthroid which is a synthetic and has side effects. That is the problem with synthetic medicines. They are not organic and all cause because of this almost an infinite variety of side effects.
So, if you consider all prepared food from restaurants, fast foods, prepared foods from the grocery store as not only food but both food and drugs combined and the only foods you can be fairly sure of is food you either grow yourself or food you are sure is organic then that is a good start.
I'm not saying to never eat all the other stuff. I'm saying that if you can afford it eat healthy and eat well. Otherwise, you won't be able to make good decisions in your life and if you are a member of a family or a family head without your good decisions your whole family could be lost with one bad decision in these times. So if you are a group leader in your family group or in your business many other lives depend upon you being rational and being able to make good decisions. None of us are perfect but these are the times we live in and we all have to do the best we can.
I had to do a lot of soul searching about taking Armour thyroid because I was raised a vegetarian. However, I realized that one of the likely reasons I was having thyroid problems likely was being a lacto ovo(milk and eggs and vegetables) vegetarian from birth to 32. Then I spent time with Tibetan Lamas in the U.S. and India and Nepal and people who are used to living above 8000 feet in elevation don't usually survive being vegetarians without central heating in the winters there. Yak Butter tea is the norm, for example, and it really takes some getting used to. I can speak from personal experience while I was in the Himalayas. However, I would say that since then I have still been about 95% lacto ovo vegetarian and when I had an angiogram I had the cleanest arteries and veins of any patient my doctors had ever seen at age 50 at Stanford Medical near Stanford University.
How can one obtain and maintain wealth on an individual and family level? In order to do this one must first be rational. Because without rationality one becomes too erratic and then cannot legally obtain and maintain wealth.
One of the first steps to this beyond a good education is to eat healthy food. For example, eating in fast food restaurants or even some restaurants that over salt, over sugar or who add MSG(monosodium glutamate) strain ones rationality and even can lead to a trip to the hospital from too much salt, too much sugar or just temporary craziness from MSG.
So, just getting food is not enough because some prepared foods are not going to maintain your health or rationality and will prevent you making good decisions for your ongoing survival.
Next, if possible try to use herbal alternatives to synthetic medicines. Go see an herbalist to see if a medicine you take can be organic rather than synthetic like most medicines in America are now. For example, I chose to take Armour Thyroid which is taken from pigs rather than synthroid which is a synthetic and has side effects. That is the problem with synthetic medicines. They are not organic and all cause because of this almost an infinite variety of side effects.
So, if you consider all prepared food from restaurants, fast foods, prepared foods from the grocery store as not only food but both food and drugs combined and the only foods you can be fairly sure of is food you either grow yourself or food you are sure is organic then that is a good start.
I'm not saying to never eat all the other stuff. I'm saying that if you can afford it eat healthy and eat well. Otherwise, you won't be able to make good decisions in your life and if you are a member of a family or a family head without your good decisions your whole family could be lost with one bad decision in these times. So if you are a group leader in your family group or in your business many other lives depend upon you being rational and being able to make good decisions. None of us are perfect but these are the times we live in and we all have to do the best we can.
I had to do a lot of soul searching about taking Armour thyroid because I was raised a vegetarian. However, I realized that one of the likely reasons I was having thyroid problems likely was being a lacto ovo(milk and eggs and vegetables) vegetarian from birth to 32. Then I spent time with Tibetan Lamas in the U.S. and India and Nepal and people who are used to living above 8000 feet in elevation don't usually survive being vegetarians without central heating in the winters there. Yak Butter tea is the norm, for example, and it really takes some getting used to. I can speak from personal experience while I was in the Himalayas. However, I would say that since then I have still been about 95% lacto ovo vegetarian and when I had an angiogram I had the cleanest arteries and veins of any patient my doctors had ever seen at age 50 at Stanford Medical near Stanford University.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
My Little Margie: Gale Storm
In 1952 when the TV show "MY Little Margie" was on I was 4 years old and my parents didn't own a TV yet just my grandparents and a few relatives.(We got our first black and white TV in 1954(color wasn't good then on TV) So I used to watch this program and "Superman" at a friends house starting in El Cajon. His name was Danny Barsocks and by that time I was 5 and in Kindergarten. These were my favorite programs then soon to be replaced until I was 12 by "Maverick" "Jim Bowie"
"Cheyenne" "Bewitched" "Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Leave it to Beaver". Beaver about that time looked a lot like me at age 8 or 9 years of age in 1956 when I was 8.
If you are about my age or just a TV buff of old shows check out on Youtube an episode or two of "My little margie" starring Gale Storm who passed away recently at age 87.
Since my mother passed away last fall at 89 it was just one more reminder of bygone days when life was much simpler than now. Have fun at Youtube!
"Cheyenne" "Bewitched" "Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Leave it to Beaver". Beaver about that time looked a lot like me at age 8 or 9 years of age in 1956 when I was 8.
If you are about my age or just a TV buff of old shows check out on Youtube an episode or two of "My little margie" starring Gale Storm who passed away recently at age 87.
Since my mother passed away last fall at 89 it was just one more reminder of bygone days when life was much simpler than now. Have fun at Youtube!
The World is Changing
I had to go to a physical therapist yesterday because of a bursa on my heel. I had been depressed for sometime about it because I had been in constant varying stages of pain for about 4 months now. I am sort of a caveman in that I need physical excercise to stay alive and am used to walking in the forest or riding my bicycle with my dogs almost every day. So this new situation that prevents my walking every day has been very troubling for me at age 61. At a younger age I might have been able to take it more in stride but this illness I see at this age as very serious because I can't correct this successfully with an operation.
Anyway, yesterday I went to a new physical therapist and was very depressed about the whole thing. I took my wife along because it is difficult for me to retain enough information if I'm in pain. I can drive a car or motorcycle with pain but find it more difficult to retain verbal information especially medical information if I'm in pain. I seem to lose about 80% of it because I'm trying to push away the pain mentally.
Anyway, I soon learned that physical therapy would help me somewhat. The most interesting things to me were the "cold lasers" shot into the bursa on my heel to simulate "as the physical therapist said" what happens if a tiger makes deep cuts with its claws in a human. He said that there are triggers when raw flesh is exposed to sunlight that causes a very quick healing response to take place and that he can trick my bursa to heal in this way by shining cold lasers directly into the bursa to trick the flesh to go into emergency mode and to heal itself.
I found out that a bursa is not like a rupture on my foot but it is too thick of scar tissue from too many injuries in the past during my life and that shining the cold laser into it forces it to heal itself rather than to just get into a vicious cycle of pain and swelling. Also, he attached electrodes to my foot and leg and showed me a biofeedback device with little lights and sounds. He told me to make the lights and sounds go up to a certain level with my mind and then let it go back to zero. I was able to see that there were many rogue signals from my mind going off because of the injury. As I used the biofeedback mechanism I found I could eliminate them because they weren't useful. When I returned home I noticed I was completely pain free for the evening. Yes. The world is changing in what is possible every day.
Anyway, yesterday I went to a new physical therapist and was very depressed about the whole thing. I took my wife along because it is difficult for me to retain enough information if I'm in pain. I can drive a car or motorcycle with pain but find it more difficult to retain verbal information especially medical information if I'm in pain. I seem to lose about 80% of it because I'm trying to push away the pain mentally.
Anyway, I soon learned that physical therapy would help me somewhat. The most interesting things to me were the "cold lasers" shot into the bursa on my heel to simulate "as the physical therapist said" what happens if a tiger makes deep cuts with its claws in a human. He said that there are triggers when raw flesh is exposed to sunlight that causes a very quick healing response to take place and that he can trick my bursa to heal in this way by shining cold lasers directly into the bursa to trick the flesh to go into emergency mode and to heal itself.
I found out that a bursa is not like a rupture on my foot but it is too thick of scar tissue from too many injuries in the past during my life and that shining the cold laser into it forces it to heal itself rather than to just get into a vicious cycle of pain and swelling. Also, he attached electrodes to my foot and leg and showed me a biofeedback device with little lights and sounds. He told me to make the lights and sounds go up to a certain level with my mind and then let it go back to zero. I was able to see that there were many rogue signals from my mind going off because of the injury. As I used the biofeedback mechanism I found I could eliminate them because they weren't useful. When I returned home I noticed I was completely pain free for the evening. Yes. The world is changing in what is possible every day.
Music
When I was 8 in 1956 we moved from Tujunga, California to Glendale, California to be nearer to the church my parents were in charge of in Los Angeles, California. My cousin who was a boy and 5 years older than I also lived in Glendale with my aunt, my father's sister.
So since my cousin played piano and took lessons from about age 6 or 8 I began to take lessons from his teacher, Mrs. Hall at age 8 in 1956. I took lessons until I was 16 in 1964 even though I refused to play in public recitals after I was 12. I loved to play but didn't like recitals by the time I was 12. I found playing the latest popular songs as well as classical music the best thing for unwinding after the stresses of going to school each day. I only played each piece once through but it was enough over 8 years to make me a decent sight reading pianist. And since I was gifted musically like my mother was was an operatic type of singer, it came sort of naturally. By age 12 I joined my church choir and sang there until I was 21 when I separated from my family church and started thinking for myself rather than having other people telling me what to think.
When I was 9 years old at Horace Mann grade school in Glendale Paul Gruss played, "It's a one eyed one horned flying purple people eater" on his violin at grade school to interest 4th, 5th an 6th graders in learning a musical instrument to form a band or orchestra. Since my cousin also played the violin I took violin lessons too at school and played in Horace Mann's orchestra and Woodrow Wilson Jr. High Orchestra until I was 14. AT 14 I just got tired of being teased by kids in carrying a violin home from school and seeing others beaten up for it. I wasn't beaten up because I was over 6 feet at fourteen and people didn't mess with me physically because they knew they might not survive it. However, I gave up the violin also because I just wasn't very good at it. However, I was very good at piano, organ, and keyboards so I stayed with that and then during and after high school I taught myself to play guitar and flute. But mostly when I jammed with friends it was either on piano, guitar or vocals or just vocals and one instrument whatever I was playing at the time. I also started playing a concert grand Steinway at church and then eventually I played the Baldwin organ there too by age 14 or 15.
I met many of my girlfriends especially from age 21 on by playing at parties and at friends houses and singing. Some of my friends became professional musicians and I still have one friend who is a successful musician who travels and plays music all over the world regularly.
I played basically for all my girlfriends from about age 15 to 25 when I settled down and got married at 26 and had a son.
I almost always either owned a grand piano or upright piano over the years so I could play and write songs for my own amusement and sometimes sing them for friends and relatives. I had gotten a lot of attention playing music for relatives and friends since I was about 8 or 9 so it was a big part of my life. In fact, I gave up being an electrician because my fingers would swell up from the cuts from wires and metal boxes bigger than piano or keyboard keys and I didn't want to lose the ability to play piano and keyboards. I still programmed computers and built houses but I didn't specialize in the electrical trade that I learned from my Dad, Grandad, and uncle. They were all Electrical Contractors.
I played piano pretty steadily until my father died when I was 37. It seemed like all my emotions about the loss of my father came up every time I played so I just pretty much stopped playing when he died. My mother could still get me to play sometimes though and we would sing a lot of the songs we sang together as I grew up while I played piano. She was an incredible singer. She passed away last fall after a long bout with senile dementia(about 10 years at age 89). Since her ashes are still on my grand piano I've noticed that I play a little more because it is like she is here listening like when I was a boy and singing with me. My daughter is gifted musically but is also a very gifted artist. Since her mother has two art degrees and an MBA she has gravitated more toward being an artist like her Mom, even though her Mom says she is better than she was at 12 or 13.
But tonight was kind of a breakthrough for her. My daughter is asking me to teach her to sight read music. She was asking me what all the symbols mean. I said, "The big C there means it is in 4/4 time which means the 1/4 notes get 1 beat and the whole notes get 2 beats." She said she didn't like the way it was designed. I said, Europeans designed this system and you have to remember there were no video or tape recordings when this was designed. It was created so a composer could write a song in one country and ship it to a friend in another on paper and the friend could play it for friends or even for money there without ever having heard it played before."
I think this idea sort of impressed her. Then I said, "But if you want to you can just go on Youtube and call up the songs you want to learn and just watch the finger positions of the people who demonstrate the songs there on the keyboards and pianos."
Since she is very studious and likes to read I know she will also learn to read music on her own time but I want to make sure she has fun learning songs and playing. Also, my daughter takes after my mother and I and has a great singing voice.
So since my cousin played piano and took lessons from about age 6 or 8 I began to take lessons from his teacher, Mrs. Hall at age 8 in 1956. I took lessons until I was 16 in 1964 even though I refused to play in public recitals after I was 12. I loved to play but didn't like recitals by the time I was 12. I found playing the latest popular songs as well as classical music the best thing for unwinding after the stresses of going to school each day. I only played each piece once through but it was enough over 8 years to make me a decent sight reading pianist. And since I was gifted musically like my mother was was an operatic type of singer, it came sort of naturally. By age 12 I joined my church choir and sang there until I was 21 when I separated from my family church and started thinking for myself rather than having other people telling me what to think.
When I was 9 years old at Horace Mann grade school in Glendale Paul Gruss played, "It's a one eyed one horned flying purple people eater" on his violin at grade school to interest 4th, 5th an 6th graders in learning a musical instrument to form a band or orchestra. Since my cousin also played the violin I took violin lessons too at school and played in Horace Mann's orchestra and Woodrow Wilson Jr. High Orchestra until I was 14. AT 14 I just got tired of being teased by kids in carrying a violin home from school and seeing others beaten up for it. I wasn't beaten up because I was over 6 feet at fourteen and people didn't mess with me physically because they knew they might not survive it. However, I gave up the violin also because I just wasn't very good at it. However, I was very good at piano, organ, and keyboards so I stayed with that and then during and after high school I taught myself to play guitar and flute. But mostly when I jammed with friends it was either on piano, guitar or vocals or just vocals and one instrument whatever I was playing at the time. I also started playing a concert grand Steinway at church and then eventually I played the Baldwin organ there too by age 14 or 15.
I met many of my girlfriends especially from age 21 on by playing at parties and at friends houses and singing. Some of my friends became professional musicians and I still have one friend who is a successful musician who travels and plays music all over the world regularly.
I played basically for all my girlfriends from about age 15 to 25 when I settled down and got married at 26 and had a son.
I almost always either owned a grand piano or upright piano over the years so I could play and write songs for my own amusement and sometimes sing them for friends and relatives. I had gotten a lot of attention playing music for relatives and friends since I was about 8 or 9 so it was a big part of my life. In fact, I gave up being an electrician because my fingers would swell up from the cuts from wires and metal boxes bigger than piano or keyboard keys and I didn't want to lose the ability to play piano and keyboards. I still programmed computers and built houses but I didn't specialize in the electrical trade that I learned from my Dad, Grandad, and uncle. They were all Electrical Contractors.
I played piano pretty steadily until my father died when I was 37. It seemed like all my emotions about the loss of my father came up every time I played so I just pretty much stopped playing when he died. My mother could still get me to play sometimes though and we would sing a lot of the songs we sang together as I grew up while I played piano. She was an incredible singer. She passed away last fall after a long bout with senile dementia(about 10 years at age 89). Since her ashes are still on my grand piano I've noticed that I play a little more because it is like she is here listening like when I was a boy and singing with me. My daughter is gifted musically but is also a very gifted artist. Since her mother has two art degrees and an MBA she has gravitated more toward being an artist like her Mom, even though her Mom says she is better than she was at 12 or 13.
But tonight was kind of a breakthrough for her. My daughter is asking me to teach her to sight read music. She was asking me what all the symbols mean. I said, "The big C there means it is in 4/4 time which means the 1/4 notes get 1 beat and the whole notes get 2 beats." She said she didn't like the way it was designed. I said, Europeans designed this system and you have to remember there were no video or tape recordings when this was designed. It was created so a composer could write a song in one country and ship it to a friend in another on paper and the friend could play it for friends or even for money there without ever having heard it played before."
I think this idea sort of impressed her. Then I said, "But if you want to you can just go on Youtube and call up the songs you want to learn and just watch the finger positions of the people who demonstrate the songs there on the keyboards and pianos."
Since she is very studious and likes to read I know she will also learn to read music on her own time but I want to make sure she has fun learning songs and playing. Also, my daughter takes after my mother and I and has a great singing voice.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Arcane and Eridian 6-29-09
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/05/arcane-as-boy.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/celeste-weavers-sister-from-previous.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/prophetess-arcanes-2nd-wife.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/notes-on-prophetess-soul-history.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/prophetess-and-arcanes-camel-train-to_09.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/yesu.html
Arcane had just come from has sojourn in a cave and learning to levitate earth yogi style. He had mentioned that he felt like more of a master than ever before because of this style of enlightenment mixed with levitation that he had learned. Biocom had told him he was turning into Saint Germain. This had always been a paradox for him that slowly unraveled over his life as he bounced around the universe learning new stuff and helping beings as best he could. It always seemed that if you put life first and continued to always do that then enlightenment continued seemingly eternally(at least to him).
He took his new wife home to her home time to New Deva but they both had changed a lot since their initiations and mastery. They were still married and likely always would be but they were becoming more independent as well with their new found wisdom and capabilities.
It was understood that he would return on a certain day for her. This allowed as much time as Arcane needed as long as he returned on that certain day in the future. So, Arcane went to his Mt. Shasta Retreat cabin and estate. As he stared at the mountain a thought occurred to him. After his meditations he realized that time doesn't really exist. He realized that there is only one moment and it is as if that moment spins and gives the illusion of time and space but there really only is that one moment. He decided to ask Eridian about this because Eridian appeared to be the final incarnation of his soul on Earth.
He watched Eridian take form in his living room. Eridian said, "What would you like to talk about, Arcane?
ARcane said, "I am experiencing that there is only one moment. Can you explain this?
Eridian looked into Arcane deeply and then said, "Well. Since you are perceiving things in this way now because of the next level of enlightenment that you have reached, let me put it this way: There is no time and space. There is only one moment of being and there is only one being and consciousness in the universe, and all else is but a temporary illusion."
Arcane looked a little pale for a moment and said,"I have intellectually grasped this since I was first taught this as a boy child initiate as a new Dragon of Compassion on my home planet, New Deva. But this is the first moment when I fully experienced it. And doing that I almost passed right out of existence."
Eridian smiled, "You won't pass out of existence now that you are enlightened to this level, Arcane, because this level of enlightenment begins to control your existence and to make it permanent."
Arcane said, "Permanent?"
Eridian said, "Well. All beings sort of have their trial period of existence to see if they can get it together enough to reach a state of consciousness like you have. Until one becomes a master it could be said that they are temporary. However, the desire to pray for and to help all beings brings that being into the proper state for permanence as a being. It's sort of like if you can experience yourself as the parent or grandparent of all beings then you might be able to become permanent as an enlightened being. It all begins with understanding that all beings suffer and then wanting to help all beings reach permanent bliss and to end their suffering. This then brings enlightenment and as each being reaches a new state of enlightenment he or she draws up naturally all their friends and relatives and anyone around them naturally into enlightenment with them."
Arcane said, "I don't know what to say."
Eridian said, "You don't have to say anything. Just experience the truth of it."
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/celeste-weavers-sister-from-previous.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/prophetess-arcanes-2nd-wife.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/notes-on-prophetess-soul-history.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/prophetess-and-arcanes-camel-train-to_09.html
http://intuitivefred888.blogspot.com/2009/06/yesu.html
Arcane had just come from has sojourn in a cave and learning to levitate earth yogi style. He had mentioned that he felt like more of a master than ever before because of this style of enlightenment mixed with levitation that he had learned. Biocom had told him he was turning into Saint Germain. This had always been a paradox for him that slowly unraveled over his life as he bounced around the universe learning new stuff and helping beings as best he could. It always seemed that if you put life first and continued to always do that then enlightenment continued seemingly eternally(at least to him).
He took his new wife home to her home time to New Deva but they both had changed a lot since their initiations and mastery. They were still married and likely always would be but they were becoming more independent as well with their new found wisdom and capabilities.
It was understood that he would return on a certain day for her. This allowed as much time as Arcane needed as long as he returned on that certain day in the future. So, Arcane went to his Mt. Shasta Retreat cabin and estate. As he stared at the mountain a thought occurred to him. After his meditations he realized that time doesn't really exist. He realized that there is only one moment and it is as if that moment spins and gives the illusion of time and space but there really only is that one moment. He decided to ask Eridian about this because Eridian appeared to be the final incarnation of his soul on Earth.
He watched Eridian take form in his living room. Eridian said, "What would you like to talk about, Arcane?
ARcane said, "I am experiencing that there is only one moment. Can you explain this?
Eridian looked into Arcane deeply and then said, "Well. Since you are perceiving things in this way now because of the next level of enlightenment that you have reached, let me put it this way: There is no time and space. There is only one moment of being and there is only one being and consciousness in the universe, and all else is but a temporary illusion."
Arcane looked a little pale for a moment and said,"I have intellectually grasped this since I was first taught this as a boy child initiate as a new Dragon of Compassion on my home planet, New Deva. But this is the first moment when I fully experienced it. And doing that I almost passed right out of existence."
Eridian smiled, "You won't pass out of existence now that you are enlightened to this level, Arcane, because this level of enlightenment begins to control your existence and to make it permanent."
Arcane said, "Permanent?"
Eridian said, "Well. All beings sort of have their trial period of existence to see if they can get it together enough to reach a state of consciousness like you have. Until one becomes a master it could be said that they are temporary. However, the desire to pray for and to help all beings brings that being into the proper state for permanence as a being. It's sort of like if you can experience yourself as the parent or grandparent of all beings then you might be able to become permanent as an enlightened being. It all begins with understanding that all beings suffer and then wanting to help all beings reach permanent bliss and to end their suffering. This then brings enlightenment and as each being reaches a new state of enlightenment he or she draws up naturally all their friends and relatives and anyone around them naturally into enlightenment with them."
Arcane said, "I don't know what to say."
Eridian said, "You don't have to say anything. Just experience the truth of it."
Transformers
The Movie. I just saw the sequel to the original Transformers movie that has made 200 million in the U.S. since last Friday(4 days). I found it very cathartic in its own strange way for all of us who have been through all the horrors since 9-11 on earth. The enemy can be defined easily(not like in real life). There is a certain symmetry about this and I found myself crying through parts of it even though most is quite funny too. It was the right amount of gore and sadness and funny to make a really great movie. It's a feel good movie and touches the core of almost anyone that can stand that much violence and noise. A fun ride from beginning to end!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
More stories from India and Nepal 1985-6
(In March 1986) We had been trekking about 50 miles through the Helambu region of the Himalayas in Nepal. We had visited our Sherpa guide's family members and stayed with them in Tarky Gyan and Shermontang. We had just hiked down about 5000 feet in elevation and my wife gave me a muscle relaxant because I took everyone's excess pack weight that they couldn't manage because I'm 6 foot 5 inches tall and have very strong legs. My wife was getting tired and the kids 10,12,and 14 were getting tired after trekking 50 miles over the last week on foot where there were no roads only trails through this area. We had crossed by then somewhere between 10 and 20 foot path suspension bridges from 1 foot wide to 5 feet wide across canyons and streams. Literally everything including aluminum roofing was carried in on foot by Nepali porters, a very hardy group who work very hard but tend to have a short life by our standards and were often married by 15 and who are gone often by 40 to 50 years of age from overwork, danger and weather in the Himalayas. However, they were very proud and happy in their lives and thought westerners were generally weak compared to them. They were all tough as nails to live this life.
Anyway, the next morning after I took muscle relaxant as I went to sleep so I wouldn't cramp up so bad I couldn't walk the next day with a pack on, my wife started crying because she was so exhausted that she couldn't control her bladder anymore. I thought we were in for it until I saw in the distance at the same time and unbelievable sight. A taxi was driving up a trail within 1 block of us and two wealthy Nepali businessmen got out of it. My two boys and I, 10, and 14 ran over to the taxi to bargain a ride back into Boudanath where we were staying at the Snow Lion Lodge then, with our guide's Tensin's family. We were in luck, he had been paid so handsomely by the two Nepali businessmen that he charged us very little to carry us and our backpacks back into the Katmandu area and to Boudanath where we were staying after our week trip through the Himalayas.
What were the chances of this happening? About zero. This taxi from heaven saved us two days hiking back to where we could catch a bus on a dirt road. We were back to our room and a warm bath in about 2 hours instead of 2 or three days. It was a miracle!
I had been recommended to take this Trek by a man from England about my age that I met in Karmandu. He was a very interesting fellow who was studying Tibetan Buddhism and had lived in Katmandu for several years at that point studying with local Tibetan Lamas.
Some of the things that were amazing to me while we trekked were bananas growing up in the Himalayas in protected well watered canyons up to 9000 feet in elevation and Rododendrons growing and blooming at 10,000 feet while a patch of snow was nearby that we ate for water at that altitude. I guess since the equator was relatively near to where we were the tree line is much higher in the Himalayas than anywhere I had ever been before on earth.
While we were on this trek I found a meditation cave where I remembered meditating in a previous lifetime. It was an eerie experience to find a place I had lived and meditated before in another lifetime. However, about 15 years later I had another experience like this while visiting Scotland in Aviemore and while driving through the Swiss Alps in a rented motorhome. So, as you travel the world don't be surprised in what you find there.
Anyway, the next morning after I took muscle relaxant as I went to sleep so I wouldn't cramp up so bad I couldn't walk the next day with a pack on, my wife started crying because she was so exhausted that she couldn't control her bladder anymore. I thought we were in for it until I saw in the distance at the same time and unbelievable sight. A taxi was driving up a trail within 1 block of us and two wealthy Nepali businessmen got out of it. My two boys and I, 10, and 14 ran over to the taxi to bargain a ride back into Boudanath where we were staying at the Snow Lion Lodge then, with our guide's Tensin's family. We were in luck, he had been paid so handsomely by the two Nepali businessmen that he charged us very little to carry us and our backpacks back into the Katmandu area and to Boudanath where we were staying after our week trip through the Himalayas.
What were the chances of this happening? About zero. This taxi from heaven saved us two days hiking back to where we could catch a bus on a dirt road. We were back to our room and a warm bath in about 2 hours instead of 2 or three days. It was a miracle!
I had been recommended to take this Trek by a man from England about my age that I met in Karmandu. He was a very interesting fellow who was studying Tibetan Buddhism and had lived in Katmandu for several years at that point studying with local Tibetan Lamas.
Some of the things that were amazing to me while we trekked were bananas growing up in the Himalayas in protected well watered canyons up to 9000 feet in elevation and Rododendrons growing and blooming at 10,000 feet while a patch of snow was nearby that we ate for water at that altitude. I guess since the equator was relatively near to where we were the tree line is much higher in the Himalayas than anywhere I had ever been before on earth.
While we were on this trek I found a meditation cave where I remembered meditating in a previous lifetime. It was an eerie experience to find a place I had lived and meditated before in another lifetime. However, about 15 years later I had another experience like this while visiting Scotland in Aviemore and while driving through the Swiss Alps in a rented motorhome. So, as you travel the world don't be surprised in what you find there.
The Dark Crystal
My daughter decided to buy the movie "The Dark Crystal" and so I watched it with her tonight. I have only seen it a couple of times since it first came out in the early 1980s with my older children. I owned a VHS of it for years but since everything is DVD now I don't think I have it anymore. Jim Henson's puppeteers made this movie and it is probably the best puppet movie of its kind ever, so it is a classic in this sense.
Also, since I met Lamrim Geshe when he had just come out of a 17 year retreat, I realized right away he was one of the people Yoda was patterned after even though he was close to 6 feet tall in 1985 when I met him in Dharmsala, India where the Dalai Lama lives at about 6000 feet in elevation in the Himalayas.
Also, the Ewoks spoke a primitive dialect of Tibetan. I didn't know this until I took Geshe Lobsang Gyatso and his Darjeeling translator to see "Revenge of the Jedi" in New Delhi, India. Geshela laughed harder than I had ever seen him during this movie when the Ewoks talked in Tibetan.
So, there was a strong Tibetan cultural influence in the Dark Crystal through Jim Henson's researchers for Yoda and "The Dark Crystal" during the late 1970s and the early 1980s.
Also, since I met Lamrim Geshe when he had just come out of a 17 year retreat, I realized right away he was one of the people Yoda was patterned after even though he was close to 6 feet tall in 1985 when I met him in Dharmsala, India where the Dalai Lama lives at about 6000 feet in elevation in the Himalayas.
Also, the Ewoks spoke a primitive dialect of Tibetan. I didn't know this until I took Geshe Lobsang Gyatso and his Darjeeling translator to see "Revenge of the Jedi" in New Delhi, India. Geshela laughed harder than I had ever seen him during this movie when the Ewoks talked in Tibetan.
So, there was a strong Tibetan cultural influence in the Dark Crystal through Jim Henson's researchers for Yoda and "The Dark Crystal" during the late 1970s and the early 1980s.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Proposition 13
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090627/us_time/08599190493800
In the above url Proposition 13 of California is blamed at the core of this crisis. HOwever, being 61 now I actually was alive and an adult when Proposition passed in California. The reason for proposition 13 being put in place by the voters in the first place was so many retired people being forced to sell their homes in order to pay their property taxes. So, in effect native Californians were being forced out of their homes by the state just because the property tax rate was just too high state wide.
Proposition 13 solved this crisis and injustice against home owners by reducing the maximum tax against homeowners of 1% of the value of the home per year and made living in and owning a home in California more possible for almost everyone. However, it is true that other sources of income to run state programs were not properly funded by the voters. But in the end do we live in a democracy or not? California is a real democracy. I don't know about the rest of the country.
In the above url Proposition 13 of California is blamed at the core of this crisis. HOwever, being 61 now I actually was alive and an adult when Proposition passed in California. The reason for proposition 13 being put in place by the voters in the first place was so many retired people being forced to sell their homes in order to pay their property taxes. So, in effect native Californians were being forced out of their homes by the state just because the property tax rate was just too high state wide.
Proposition 13 solved this crisis and injustice against home owners by reducing the maximum tax against homeowners of 1% of the value of the home per year and made living in and owning a home in California more possible for almost everyone. However, it is true that other sources of income to run state programs were not properly funded by the voters. But in the end do we live in a democracy or not? California is a real democracy. I don't know about the rest of the country.
Worse Than Great Depression?
http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2009/06/23/its-already-worse-than-the-depression
quote from above url.
According to Ibbotson Associates, of the 74 rolling 10-year periods since 1926 (i.e., 1926-1935, 1927-1936, and so on), U.S. large-cap stocks posted negative returns in just three of them. The first two were 1929-1938 (-0.89% compound annual return) and 1930-1939 (-0.05% compound annual return), and involved the Depression. The third loser decade was the most recent -- and the worst. From 1999-2008, U.S. large-cap stocks "returned" a compound annual average of negative 1.38%.
Who would have thought back in 1999, when we were more worried about Y2K than our 401(k), that in the subsequent decade big-name American stocks would do worse than they did in the 1930s? Not many. end quote.
So, if I'm reading this right of all 74 rolling 10 year periods, the last ten year period is the worst since 1926.
And if that is the case I think there is a whole new dynamic than we have seen before. One of the causes of this new dynamic is global warming. The droughts that have encreased along with aberrant rain patterns and weather patterns have played havoc with crops worldwide over the last 10 years what with Australian farmers in the outback committing suicide in droves and most of Australia's crops failing from lack of water during those same times and various other problems worldwide.
If the period from 1926 to 1996 was a period of more effective use of farmland and crop growing, we could be in for a long period of decreasing crops worldwide and a loss of land that requires direct rain that otherwise might be tillable. Water reclamation projects might be the only solution worldwide to keep crop levels from dropping in droughted areas.
quote from above url.
According to Ibbotson Associates, of the 74 rolling 10-year periods since 1926 (i.e., 1926-1935, 1927-1936, and so on), U.S. large-cap stocks posted negative returns in just three of them. The first two were 1929-1938 (-0.89% compound annual return) and 1930-1939 (-0.05% compound annual return), and involved the Depression. The third loser decade was the most recent -- and the worst. From 1999-2008, U.S. large-cap stocks "returned" a compound annual average of negative 1.38%.
Who would have thought back in 1999, when we were more worried about Y2K than our 401(k), that in the subsequent decade big-name American stocks would do worse than they did in the 1930s? Not many. end quote.
So, if I'm reading this right of all 74 rolling 10 year periods, the last ten year period is the worst since 1926.
And if that is the case I think there is a whole new dynamic than we have seen before. One of the causes of this new dynamic is global warming. The droughts that have encreased along with aberrant rain patterns and weather patterns have played havoc with crops worldwide over the last 10 years what with Australian farmers in the outback committing suicide in droves and most of Australia's crops failing from lack of water during those same times and various other problems worldwide.
If the period from 1926 to 1996 was a period of more effective use of farmland and crop growing, we could be in for a long period of decreasing crops worldwide and a loss of land that requires direct rain that otherwise might be tillable. Water reclamation projects might be the only solution worldwide to keep crop levels from dropping in droughted areas.
Happiness and Wealth
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090602/sc_livescience/happinesshasnothingtodowithwealth
Just as in the webpage url above it is my experience that wealth, fame and good looks in combination are more likely to be a problem than a blessing.
From about age 15 on I always had good looks, good parents(my birth parents stayed together from before my birth until they each died), and a fairly good education and good friends. However, my happiest memories of my life started about age 32 to about age 37. When I was young I expected to be happiest when I was 16 and got my driver's license. However, I didn't understand the problem of unrealistic expectations that most people don't get over until at least age 30 if ever.
So, my favorite time of my life was age 32 to 37 where I had gotten over unrealistic expectations, knew who I was and neither of my parents had died yet. With the death of my father at my age 37 it began the ending of my second marriage and I can't really say I was ever happy after that though I can say I have been very contented since I almost died at age 50. Now I'm 61.
Has money made me happier? Strangely enough since my late 40s money has no longer been a problem for me. Up until then I never had private health insurance before. So I think the biggest help money has brought is that I can now see any doctor I want and because of this I'm still alive. If there is any one advantage to money it is in staying alive after 40.
For example, I had a colonoscopy at age 50 and they found a polyp and snipped it off during the colonoscopy. If that had been left to grow I would be dead now. So, I would say money for health insurance and good doctors is the most important thing about wealth. So if staying alive makes you happy then you want to be wealthy after 45 or it might not happen.
This is a real life reason that this nation needs health care for everyone.
The single biggest reason statistically for personal bankruptcy is health care expenses in this country.
Just as in the webpage url above it is my experience that wealth, fame and good looks in combination are more likely to be a problem than a blessing.
From about age 15 on I always had good looks, good parents(my birth parents stayed together from before my birth until they each died), and a fairly good education and good friends. However, my happiest memories of my life started about age 32 to about age 37. When I was young I expected to be happiest when I was 16 and got my driver's license. However, I didn't understand the problem of unrealistic expectations that most people don't get over until at least age 30 if ever.
So, my favorite time of my life was age 32 to 37 where I had gotten over unrealistic expectations, knew who I was and neither of my parents had died yet. With the death of my father at my age 37 it began the ending of my second marriage and I can't really say I was ever happy after that though I can say I have been very contented since I almost died at age 50. Now I'm 61.
Has money made me happier? Strangely enough since my late 40s money has no longer been a problem for me. Up until then I never had private health insurance before. So I think the biggest help money has brought is that I can now see any doctor I want and because of this I'm still alive. If there is any one advantage to money it is in staying alive after 40.
For example, I had a colonoscopy at age 50 and they found a polyp and snipped it off during the colonoscopy. If that had been left to grow I would be dead now. So, I would say money for health insurance and good doctors is the most important thing about wealth. So if staying alive makes you happy then you want to be wealthy after 45 or it might not happen.
This is a real life reason that this nation needs health care for everyone.
The single biggest reason statistically for personal bankruptcy is health care expenses in this country.
Everyone Suffers
People might say to you, "If I only had a big house to live in and had enough food then everything would be okay. Then,say, they get the big house and enough food for a lifetime and then what will they say? Probably something like, "I'm so happy I have a big house now but now I'm lonely because I'm alone with enough food in my big house."
So, then maybe they go to the internet, bar, church, social gathering, walking down the street and meet someone they feel attracted to and invite that person to share their big house and their food and then things seem perfect for a week, a month, a year or several years. But eventually, either the relationship ends, kids are involved and custody battles ensue, someone tries to steal the house from the original owner or whatever. People are unhappy again one way or the other.
The point of all this is not just to go outside and shoot yourself because this is how life really is. The point is to see that everyone suffers. If everyone suffers then one then knows they are not alone suffering. The saying misery loves company comes to mind. I prefer to say, "Samsara sucks". Which is a 1960s statement about living in the physical world where nothing is perfect or stays perfect for very long.
So, the first step toward inner peace and enlightenment is to accept deep in your heart that everyone suffers. Once this first hurdle can be jumped over then next one decides what to do about it for oneself and all others. The noble path and the noble choice is to say, "I am going to take responsibility for my own happiness and not only that I am going to try to end permanently the suffering of all beings".
You might say to me, "That's an impossible task!" And I would say to you, "It's only impossible if you believe it is."
Besides, it is something positive to do rather than taking your own life as if you were a helpless baby.
So, then maybe they go to the internet, bar, church, social gathering, walking down the street and meet someone they feel attracted to and invite that person to share their big house and their food and then things seem perfect for a week, a month, a year or several years. But eventually, either the relationship ends, kids are involved and custody battles ensue, someone tries to steal the house from the original owner or whatever. People are unhappy again one way or the other.
The point of all this is not just to go outside and shoot yourself because this is how life really is. The point is to see that everyone suffers. If everyone suffers then one then knows they are not alone suffering. The saying misery loves company comes to mind. I prefer to say, "Samsara sucks". Which is a 1960s statement about living in the physical world where nothing is perfect or stays perfect for very long.
So, the first step toward inner peace and enlightenment is to accept deep in your heart that everyone suffers. Once this first hurdle can be jumped over then next one decides what to do about it for oneself and all others. The noble path and the noble choice is to say, "I am going to take responsibility for my own happiness and not only that I am going to try to end permanently the suffering of all beings".
You might say to me, "That's an impossible task!" And I would say to you, "It's only impossible if you believe it is."
Besides, it is something positive to do rather than taking your own life as if you were a helpless baby.
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