Living your Beliefs

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For so many, what they live, and what they believe are two different things. Many do not live their beliefs, only hold them inside. Making thoughts and goals of them. Not realities. They may make good companions, but beyond that add little, especially to the outside world. Many would do different if they could. But most of those would not, if it meant a sacrifice in another area, like security or ease. They would rather keep their dreams conveniently out of reach. Why change when you can stay the same. America is a nation of just such people. Ideally probably quite a few of them do not want to be killers and wreckers of the planet. And even a few try to live in balance in a land that demands imbalance. A society sickens when its better part must be stifled down, even to each individual, so they can live with the shame of what their country does, to others and it´s own. What of the so called caring, to have the leader of the nation you proclaim to love, the head of a mob of power hungry murderers out to rape the world. They cannot divorce themselves from what they do not like about America, it is as a whole in what it does, it is the outcome that counts, the results. Each adds up to what it is. In America, you cannot live as you believe, or you must believe in the wrongness of it. It is a nation that makes you live a lie. And freedom always strangles when you lie.

I live my beliefs, I always have. I feel it’s the only way to live, by not compromising them. Its lead me on an interesting and very meaningful path. Putting principals first. There was a time when America appeared worth saving, but that was just an illusion. It has been doomed from the start. Just shooting up on violence and greed until its topped itself out on it. Exposed its insides for what they are and now no ever hiding them again. Only for those who willfully hide from the facts of their country so they can live what is known as the good life off the illgotten gains. America is past its time, as a nation, but as a force it sweeps the world in its corruption of society and methods. Even if one leaves America, to do the right thing, they must always fight Americanization, wherever it is. America the country, is nothing but a quick experiment in history, all about ready to finish its change since its fall from belief. One should love their life, but not such a country.

Tagged

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It is my way to not fill out questionaires, and I don´t like playing games, but I do like books and enjoyed reading what others answered. So today, I decided to add mine to the rest of those "tagged". Thank you Redwine.

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One book that changed your life?

My great grandmothers Grimms Fairy Tale Book from her library. So big and old, musky smelling, full of illustrations and strange tales. I had to sit on a special chair to read it. It took my imagination.
One book you have read more than once?
The Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. Now and again I reread it, among others.

One book you would want on a desert island?

I would rather write a book in those conditions, than read one.

One book that made you laugh?
It seems most books make me laugh for one reason or another, but I think the author that amuses me the most is Charles Dickens. That is who comes to mind at the moment. I rarely read a book that is written for humor. And suddenly I remember The Horses Mouth, by Joyce Carey, that definitely made me laugh.

One volume that made you cry?
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. I read this when I was little more than a child and I remember crying so much.
One book you wish had been written?
An impossible book, the history of the world and mankind as it really happened, with all the missing pieces.
One book you wish had never been written?

The Bible. I wonder what would have evolved if that particular book had not come along at the right time and become so popular.

One book you are currently reading?

From Indian to Chicano by James Diego Vigil, I just started it.

One book you have been meaning to read?

I have been meaning to read a book by Chomsky, perhaps the one called Hegemony and something, I forgot. He seems to have made an impression and should also be explored. But I have not gotten to it yet, he seems so American and so dull.

Something Nice

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I always think Sundays are good for something special. This link is to some music that impressed me.

Beautiful

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Sunshine raying down from clear skies early in the day make the world seem beautiful. I try not to think of those who cannot feel it from lack of choice. I just have to get out and stand in it. Today it makes me want to feel the earth in my hands, so I garden. Touching the soil is like getting your hands in the tortilla dough, so basic. That and the sea air, so big, so full. What is government, or for that matter, the world, as I stand here in my own. They only touch my mind if I call them up. There is beauty and life goes on. I wonder what humans part is in it. The great undoer? What of people who walk out their door to ugliness, do they have to look for a curbside tree, a glimpse of sky crisscrossed with electric lines. Open their curtains but only to see their neighbors windows. View is so important, not just mental, but visual. One needs to feast their eyes so they do not hunger the brain for want of beautiful. You could see a bird on a branch and make it into a picture that tells the all. And you could see the world unfold in front of you, every splendor revealed and not notice if your not open to it. Beauty. This fresh air just washed over me, tingling the senses, the bird sounds clear and carrying. Do people forced from their homes, walking homeless to a destination they never wanted, do they see the beauty along the road and feel relief from it, or does it only mock them? Sometimes beauty can make you ache with it, its so powerful. Sunshine picking out each object, like everything counts. Some don't care about beauty, although it is hard for me to believe. Their souls must be shriveled, their minds drab and flat. What if prisons used beauty to heal and soothe their inmates. They must be so deprived of it that healing what wounds brought them there is near impossible. I think of office and factory workers too, slaves to the indoors. The mind can feed off of beauty and grow to keep taking in more. One needs a beautiful view to take part of and it has to be replenished as often as possible. So many ways to make things beautiful. I am now going back outdoors, to take in just a little more and forget everything but that. Late summer.

On Your Own

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It´s a warm morning with a cool light breeze. My island, I call it mine because it is in my view, drifts in ocean haze yet. A white blot on the horizon, a cruise ship departing on its endless rounds, full of paid for a good time people. I was down there yesterday, on the beach that is out front here. Next to the harbor and its breakwaters is a little strip of beach land that the fishermen are taking over, just right above the hightide line. Sand and rocks and small cliffs behind. Sometimes it becomes apparent that land has no owner holding it totally legally and that gives the edge to move in on it and make it yours. This will be the fourth jump I have seen on property on the ocean front. All these places are where a boat can be launched in good weather. The first, Puerto Nuevo started out like this one here twenty years ago, a few shacks pieced together and being lived in and worked from. Puerto Nuevo is now rows of streets with seafood restaurants two stories high, one after the other, souvenier stalls and liquor stores. (what more does a tourist need?) As I sat on the cliffs above these little shacks started here, watching a fisherman mend his nets I am struck by the freeness of his life. This shack is wood washed in and brought in, a couple car hoods, various tarps and plastics, dirt floors and carved out dirt steps leading to it. The kitchen is outside and has a place for a wood fire and a refrigerator grate to cook on. He has two homemade stools and a chair without a back around it. If he can hold onto this property perhaps someday he can get papers for it, if not it is his for now, free of charge. It’s a life that’s been there time on end, fishing, just like his ancesotrs. Living form the land. His movements are so practiced, his space so well used, so inventive. I could smell the fish he was cooking. I know that type, he would have invited my husband and I to eat gladly if we would let him. Perhaps next time, and I will bring some tortillas or bread for it, maybe some beer to wash it down. It is a wonderful thought, to just pick a spot, take it and use it and make a living from it. A country that allows the poor a place and a way to make it is a good thing. Some countries the gap is so wide the poor must just stay where they are at. No way out. I have seen the poor get free land and make it into something and sell it, buy more, and go from there. Some have got very rich this way, using their wits and starting at the bottom. Tonight as the sun sets I will go back down there, to watch the progress and see what the catch of the day is. I think it might be one of those pinkish grey sunsets, slowing fading into the ocean, the colors all subtle and soft blending in with the lapping of the waves. The ocean has been calm.

Contentment

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A Point To Ponder

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A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

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"Not very long," answered the Mexican.
"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

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The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

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"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs . I have a full life."

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The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

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And after that?" asked the Mexican.

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With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

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"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

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"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

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"And after that?"

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"Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

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"Millions? Really? And after that?" said the Mexican.

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"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

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And the moral is:Know where you're going in life... you may already be there.

World Americanization

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It would be good if what is bad about America was just in America and theirs only. But America belongs in essence to the world now, it is no longer just the country, it is the process. Americanization. It happens all over the planet, in perfect imitation or in its own form.

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America sets itself up to be a world leader when at heart it is rotten. They have no good intentions first. What good they do is just to make an opening to slip in the bad as easy and as unnoticeable as possible. They even try to disguise their wars of greed for capitalism by calling it stopping the terrorist and saving the world. They peddle their image to the point where many across the world think it is the goal. It is frightening to see a nation of people narrowing their minds and lives down to a useable stroke and all the while thinking it is freedom.

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America is at fault because it projects the image of success with the average citizen having so much available to him. It makes it look like their way is the good way, the way to get what you want. And people know what they want because they watch tv and ads and see all that there is, and its price. What is really a life of all fitting the one mold leaves them with no facility to see what they have lost. And what they have lost is so much, almost what it is to be human, an individual, instead of a number working for wages and living to support a government. They have possessions, and that can look good, lots of new shiny things, and they have positions, safe and secure and they are told this is success. Not realizing true success is within. America stifles creativity. All gets reduced down to the same boil, the same tune. And so, in order to have this success one looses all but the process.

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It is the saddest thing to see the world turn the way of America. Greed, capitalism, fascism, militaristic, radically religious, many many bad labels. It is a way to enable the rich to get richer and poor stay poor. And to make every poor mans dream to be like the rich and all his goals to strive for that, or live in failure. The signs are easy to recognize, the turning to self, the disintegration of the family, learning as entertainment instead of thinking, lack of manners, changing the diet to unnatural food, idolizing the rich, living in debt and letting oneself to be so easily brainwashed. Among others.

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A future where the world resembles America is like giving up on mankind. Living for what's next, instead of what is. Each little wedge of Americanism anywhere in the world is a defeat, a loss to society and man and his potential. Americanism is a world disease and spreading like a plague.

So Much of It

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Learning and discovering about the world was a different thing before the rot of America cracked open and came oozing out all over the place. So much news about America, dominating everything, even ones attention. It makes the globe look like a target of conquests and oppressions and defeats. Watching America as it crumbles and exposes itself one sees all manners of horrors. War as a business technique. Torture as an acceptable method, selling weapons to anyone that will buy, pushing bunk religions to fit the newest cause. It offends the senses to have to realize the depths of their depravity. They have even turned learning into entertainment so no one has to think. Consumerism and capitalism. Global warning and waning resources. America is right in the forefront of all of this, paving the way, joining up with those that will go for it. Their government cares for nothing but their greed and this uncaring filters down to where it has dissolved the family unit. No one cares anymore, you can see torture victims and dead babies, that’s just the norm now, thanks to America. People using the name of their god to excuse what they do because he is on their side. Their Hollywood putting out mind trash and their news propaganda. Even their diets turn against them with their fast foods and overeating, turning even mealtime to disgust. America seethes with a sick hatred, a hatred of each other, of the black, of the brown, of the white, the yellow, the different, themselves. They don't hate the crimes of their government, they overlook them in order to overlook their guilt. The more one looks at this country the more one sees the worst side of humanity. One should be aware of all there is one can be aware of, but must one learn it from the glare of the atrocities of the Americans continuously. Why do I see the torture photos in my mind, I knew torture was wrong and I was aware that it is used. But must I have it spread out all over as a daily event as I wander thru my news sources. Must America continuously bump up against my sensitivity until it gets use to horrors. These things should not predominate what a nation does, but what America does fills me with disgust. I wish my mind could go back to where it was before all this finally erupted, all those thoughts of the wrongs that can be done did not collide on the surface and push up against the meaning of everyday life. America is a blot on the existence of mankind and a wound on the mind.