From outside the box

I've been reading up on experiments that scientist around the world are doing in the field of quantum mechanics. I don't understand why some of these results are not front page news. They should be because some of the things science is learning will eventually change how we look at life, how we see ourselves in relation to each other, and the part we play in creating our realities.

In 1997 scientific journals throughout the world published the results of an experiment that traditional physicists say shouldn't have happened. At the University of Geneva in Switzerland an experiment was performed with particles of light called photons, the basic stuff the universe is made of. The photons were split and sent off in two opposite directions on fiber optic highways, the same kind that transmit telephone calls. At the end of seven miles, fourteen miles apart, the twin photons were forced to "choose" between two random routes that were identical in every respect. They choose the same route every time, and they did this in every repeated experiment. Even though conventional wisdom states that the two photons are separate and have no communication with each other, they acted as if they were still connected.

Between 1993 and 2000, a series of unprecedented experiments at the Russian Academy of Sciences was conducted using DNA. In one experiment they removed all of the air from a tube creating a vacuum. They knew the only thing that existed in a vacuum would be photon light particles. They observed that the photons were scattered throughout the tube in no particular random order. After introducing human DNA into the tube, the photons rearranged themselves into regular patterns. There was no known reason for this to happen. When they removed the DNA they noted that the photons remained in regular patterns.

Several more experiments were done, in fact still are being done, with results that are shaking the very foundation of what we thought we knew about matter. Scientist have found that, on a quantum level, matter changes just by observing it! What these experiments are demonstrating is that particles are communicating as great distances when there is nothing between them, no known reason for them to be able to communicate. Also we are finding that thought and touch actually change the order of particles that are the basic building blocks of matter. Think about that the next time you shake some bodies hand. You are sharing DNA and in the process, you are changing the very structure of each others physical make up on a quantum level! When touch is done with concentrated focus, how much more the effect?

So what does this mean to us? It means that we are influencing the world around us in unseen ways that we have never been aware of. It means that the whole universe may be connected in a way so profound as to suggest that all things are part of each other. It means that we have more responsibility as to how we think and act than we have ever realized. It means that there may be a highway or a fabric of intelligence that permeates the whole universe. It may even mean that we truely can change our lives in any way that we want to and that miracles really are possible. Physicist John Wheeler calls it...."a participatory universe." Life is changing ....stay tuned.

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Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

Posted by Joe Shaw at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have been really looking forward to a different kind of campaign this year....one that sticks to the important issues and not silly innuendo's, spins, half truth's, character assassination, and all the baloney that only lowers our political IQ'S. When I hear about stupid crap like McCain having an affair 100 years ago or Obama sitting in front of a Cuban flag, I am reminded of cheap campaign tricks used in the past....Willy Horton, swift boat adds, gay marriage, draft dodging, and college grades. Guess I'd better get used to it.

Posted by Joe Shaw at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A teaspoon-full of Neutron star would weigh about 112 million tonnes.

Jupiter is heavier than all the other planets put together.
If you could put Saturn in an enormous bathtub, it would float. The planet is less dense than water.

Even on the clearest night, the human eye can only see about 3,000 stars. There are an estimated 100,000,000,000 in our galaxy alone!

If the sun were the size of a dot on an ordinary-sized letter 'i', then the nearest star would be 10 miles away.

Half-a-billionth of the energy released by the sun reaches the Earth

Temperatures on Venus are hot enough to melt lead.

If you could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) it would take 100,000 years to cross our galaxy!
Betelgeuse, the bright star on Orion's top-left shoulder, is so big that if it was placed where the sun is, it would swallow up Earth, Mars and Jupiter!

On the equator you are about 3% lighter than at the poles, due to the centrifugal force of the Earth spinning.

The atmosphere on Earth is proportionately thinner than the skin on an apple.

On Mercury a day (the time it takes for it to spin round once) is 59 Earth-days. Its year (the time it takes to orbit the sun) is 88 days- that means there are fewer than 2 days in a year!

If a piece of the sun the size of a pinhead were to be placed on Earth, you could not safely stand within 90 miles of it!

Its estimated that the number of stars in the universe is greater than the number of grains of sand on all the beaches in the world! On a clear night, we can see the equivalent of a handful of sand.

Every year the sun evaporates 100,000 cubic miles of water from Earth (that weighs 400 trillion tonnes!)

Jupiter acts as a huge vacuum cleaner, attracting and absorbing comets and meteors. Some estimates say that without Jupiters gravitational influence the number of massive projectiles hitting Earth would be 10,000 times greater.

Astronomers believe that space is not a complete vacuum- there are three atoms per cubic metre.

Posted by Joe Shaw at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is gonna be one of those days....one of those wonderful days when I get to choose whatever I want to do. Outside my office window I watch the thick black clouds coming in from the west. Some would say there is a threat of rain in those beautiful nebulactic clusters of smaze and brume. I say there is a promise of rain. The only threat I see is a threat of blue skies, but that's not gonna happen for a while. Bring on the rain, make my day!

Today my choices are endless. I have two dogs anxious to go somewhere, anywhere. I've got a few bucks in my pocket, a tank of gas, a healthy body, and an unlimited imagination. I'll probably start out at Bidwell Perk where I'll get jacked up on a soy cap-of-chino. From there onto Target for laundry detergent and dog food. If I'm lucky, and I'm feeling very lucky, the parking lot will be full and I'll get to park far enough away to enjoy a little stroll in the rain. Target is just the beginning of my adventure. The pace is set. I'm feeling frisky! Onto Raileys!

Raileys is especially exciting because there I like to go back to the pharmacy and check my heart rate and blood pressure on that little machine you stick your arm into. It's free and the outcome is always so unpredictable. Will my resting heart rate be in the seventies, maybe eighties, or who knows....that's the joy of the whole experience, I might even be in the low nineties! As always, I will probably forget to take my cloth grocery bags in from my car and then I face the dilemma of using paper or plastic. Why do they have to give you so damn many choices? But that's ok because the day will still be young....many more adventures ahead.

By late morning I think I will come back home and fold laundry. Laundry is always fun because there is so much of it and I'm never sure where everything goes. You know what? I'm gonna skip laundry today. It's been piled on my couch for three days now and the dogs really enjoy laying on it. Laundry folding will be tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. That leaves the option of playing my guitar, walking the dogs, jumping the dead battery in my truck, or raking my front yard. I'll probably skip the raking because there isn't anything to rake up.

These activities should just about take me up to lunch time. Maybe today I'll eat out. There's a new restaurant, Italian I believe, at the corner of Floral and East Ave. that I've been meaning to try. However, I probably won't go there because I don't like Italian food. Italian food is over rated. It's all just different combinations of meat and white flour. I think I'll go to Sin of Cortez and have the blue cheese walnut salad with a side of brown rice. The great thing about Sin of Cortez is that you never know who you might run into....and I run into lots of people. But there all strangers to me, like I said, I never know who I run into.

By now I should be into the early afternoon. Endless possibilities! I think I'll take a nap after I leave Sin of Cortez. Hopefully I'll wake up before I get to the stop lights at East Ave. At this point my dogs will be getting restless. Got to walk them somewhere. I like to go that little glen that runs along the Lindo Channel on the north side by the Mission Oaks neighborhood. There is a nice path with lots of things for them to piss on. I always run into some older person walking their dog. Their dogs are always on leashes because that's the law. They will say something to me about my dogs not being on a leash. I will apologize and act like I didn't know they were supposed to be and pretend I'm walking them back towards the car. Once the old person is out of sight, we continue walking again along the channel. This has worked for me for years.

By now it will be time to get my son from school. He goes to Chico High. This is always a high part of my day because of the challenge of getting in and out of the high school area without a fender bender or seriously injuring any students. I usually do pretty good. We'll probably stop at Big Al's for an afternoon snack. Did you know that Big Al's has a bench in the outside eating area that has been there for over 50 years? It's truly a work of art. There are names and initials carved into that bench that go all the way back to my childhood. That's why the bench gets smaller every year. I always enjoy looking for my initials carved into that bench from high school, until I remember I didn't go to high school here. But still, what a bench indeed.

Today I think I have to take Brady to the mall for a new pair of shoes. He's already outgrown his 11 and 1/2, ready for a pair of size 12's. The kids got my feet. I wear a size 15. When you wear a size 15 you don't get to choose your style or color of shoes. What I do is to walk thru the mall, stopping at every shoe outlet, and asking if they have anything in a fifteen. If I'm lucky, one place will have one pair, and no matter what they look like, I buy them. You should see my shoe collection, you'd puke.

My day will probably end up with Brady doing homework as I watch the debate tonight between Hillary and Obama. Maybe Obama will say something besides "Yes we can" or "Change!". At any rate, by the second glass of ruby red, I won't care.

So now that I've wasted half of my morning typing out this ridiculous dissertation about nothing, I think I better get started. The rain has begun to fall, the coffee shop is calling, and the adventure of life awaits me. Yes folks, I'm livin the dream!

Posted by Joe Shaw at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The following blog concerns a topic I have touched upon many times. I will always come back to this subject because I think it is important. I believe that if everybody put more attention on living consciously, the world would change considerably and for the better. There are tons of books out there that explain this subject better than I do, but since it is so near and dear to my heart, I'm gonna put my take on it. Thanks for reading....

There are no secrets or mysteries to life, only things we refuse to see.

My first concept of "living consciously" came about back in 1976. I had been dating a girl for several months and one day to my surprise, I realized we were living together. I never planned for that to happen, it just kind of evolved into that situation. It started out with her spending the night every now and then, and soon it was every weekend, and then half the week, and then.....why are we paying rent in two places? In future relationships, I always remembered that experience. I decided that if I was ever going to live with another woman, it was going to be a conscious decision by both of us, not a gradual evolution.

As time went by, I became aware of how we make so many decisions and live so much of our lives "unconsciously". We drive unconsciously, we listen to radio adds and bad music unconsciously, we eat unconsciously, we even talk to each other unconsciously! I had to become aware of my own unconscious habits and decisions before I could begin to make conscious or mindful choices. The whole idea is to make more conscious choices and less unconscious ones.

Every decision, every choice we make, we do it either consciously or unconsciously. Most of us think that we are always in control, that we are consciously making our own decisions. However, we often fall prey to the reactive mind without even knowing it's happened. We can switch from action to reaction in a heartbeat. When we are mindfully active, we are consciously deciding our next move, we are awake and aware. When we are in a reactive state, we are simply reacting to familiar conditions, preset mind patterns, just "going with the flow". We do things without thinking about what we are doing. We all do it...a lot!

When I spend too much time being reactive or unconscious, I start to feel pessimistic about things. I loose my natural energy and it can be easy to feel like a victim. Events happen that seem out of my control. Sometimes it takes a while for me to realize what is going on. When I catch it, I can usually turn it around fairly quick. I start by centering myself in the moment and then I decide what I want to do next.... where do I want to go from this moment? When I take charge of my consciousness and my thinking, I start to feel energized again. I start to feel myself in a good flow with the world around me. Events start to fall into place, the timing of things goes smoother, life seems to respond to me. I become (my new word for the day) apperceptive!

The whole key to what I'm talking about here is to realize that you are a conscious being, you are more than your thoughts and feelings. Our mind is a tool, not a being. There is no awareness in the mind, only processes. You are pure awareness until you think. When we think, it's easy to get lost in our thoughts or to mistake our identity of self with thought and emotion. We think all the time but the real you, the awareness factor, is not to be found in the thoughts but rather in the silent spaces between the thoughts. This is the seat of consciousness. This is where we tune into the moment, the NOW. It is when we identify with our mind that we fall into a state of reactivity. It has been said that we must loose our mind to find ourselves. The more we realize who we are, the more we realize who we are not, and then the more we can begin to live consciously.

So.... what can sound like a bunch of new age googlydoo is really a simple process of taking charge of yourself. Socrates said, "Man, know thyself." Shakespeare said, "To be or not to be." Jesus said, " I am, that I am." And the greatest philosopher of all, Popeye the sailor man put it this way..."I am what I am and that's all that I am." These are all saying the same thing....BE WHO YOU ARE. All you have to do is ask yourself every now and then if you are doing what you really want to do. Is it your choice or are you reacting to preset mind conditions or outside influences? And if you are reacting to something, are you consciously choosing to do it, because that's OK too. Are you being who you want to be at any given moment or are you being who you think you are supposed to be? Are you awake or are you sleeping thru your experience? Is every action and thought you put out bringing you closer to your goals or moving you further away? Are you allowing yourself to feel an emotion or have you become that emotion? Are you simply thinking or are you also aware that you are thinking?

It takes constant attention to be in control. Lack of attention leads to reactivity or unconscious decisions. Constant awareness leads to living consciously which leads to self empowerment. It's impossible to be self aware all of the time, were not wired to do that. However, I think it's important that we try. The very act of trying conditions our awareness and makes us more alert from a higher perspective.

The following questions are good measuring sticks to gage how consciously you are living your life....Are you happy with your life? Do you love your life? Can you say out loud that you love your life? Do you see that every aspect of your life is a result of the choices you have made, either consciously or unconsciously? If you answer yes to all of these, you are living consciously.

One last note....Sometimes life sucks no matter what we do. Sometimes we want out of our situation. We all have these times in our life, that's part of the game. No matter how bad things get, there is usually a gem to find somewhere in the situation....sometimes it takes a while to find it. But in the long run, in the bigger picture, it is important that we recover from these things, hopefully we come out wiser in the end. I have found in my life that the more I take charge of my mind and thoughts and try to remember who I really am, the better I seem to get thru the difficult times.

Posted by Joe Shaw at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are a society of addictions. Most of us are either addicted to caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, prescription or non prescription drugs, sugar, salt, or anything else you can think of that should not be used in excess. However, our biggest addiction seems to be the most unpopular one to talk about. I have learned over the years that even the most progressive of liberals get uneasy when I talk about this. I'm talking about the raising and slaughtering of the most gentle creatures on earth to feed our appetite for meat. Good hearted compassionate people who would never harm another living creature seem to be able to slip into a delirious state of total denial when it comes to eating meat. I do not judge people for eating meat. I did it myself the first 25 years of my life and I understand how easily we can disassociate from the realities of what meat eating does to our health, the environment, and the living conditions of animals that are raised for food, or maybe we just don't know any better.

I did an article a few months back detailing the fact that meat was not a good source of protein. Protein is made from amino acids and meat must be broken down into whatever amino acids it contains to be rebuilt as protein. Eating protein to get protein is like eating hair to have thicker hair. It just doesn't work that way. Pound for pound you get more protein from most raw foods than you do from meat. That's why the largest, healthiest, and longest living animals on earth are vegetarians.

Christians believe that God put animals on earth to serve mankind. Why not, it's in the bible. Funny how we pick and choose whatever we want to believe from the bible. If we did everything the bible told us to do, we would stone our sisters to death for having sex outside of marriage. We are screwing our planet up because of antiquated back water religious beliefs. In the last 50 years, 40% of the worlds rain forests have been destroyed so the land can be used for raising cattle.

Denial is a funny thing. How many of us could eat a hamburger if we had to watch the cow be slaughtered beforehand? Many could, but I would guess that most of us couldn't. Yet we eat it anyway because we don't have to see, we don't even want to know what really goes on behind the scenes. It all comes so easy, so natural to us because we grew up eating meat. When we see piles of it behind glass cases at the butcher counter, we simply see food. Vegetarians don't see food, we see dead carcasses and carved up cadavers. The longer you go without eating it, the more foul the whole idea of it is. It's like an ex smoker who years later watches somebody put smoke into their lungs and wonders how anybody could do such a stupid and gross thing.

The more informed we are about something, the better decisions we make about it. Our denial about the realities of eating meat keeps many of us from becoming informed. This is the definition of living unconsciously. If we all continue to live unconsciously, the world is in great jeopardy. If not for the animals, and if not for the environment, then at least for the sake of your own health, please take some time and do a little research. "Diet For A New America" and "Fast Food Nation" are two good books to start with. Also, you can check out these web sites. They contain a lot of information and it doesn't take too much time to go thru all of it.

World Watch Magazine: July/August 2004 | Worldwatch Institute
Good Stuff? - Meat | Worldwatch Institute http://www.selfempowermentacademy.com.au/pdf/L3_LIVING_on_LIGHT/Glob_Journ/5-v

Posted by Joe Shaw at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There is a question I often ask myself as a way to gage how my actions, morals, habits, and tastes affect the world. Here's the question....If everybody was just like me or did exactly what I did, what would the world be like? Would the world be a better place or not? It's an interesting question because if you answer it honestly, you might surprise yourself. At the expense of sounding a bit audacious as well as a little self vituperating allow me to share how the world might be if everybody was just like me......

Part one, the good things....We would need no locks on any doors because there would be no theft. The highways would always be clean. There would be no prisons because there would be no serious crime. Women would be safe to go anywhere at any time by themselves. All yards would be green and mowed. There would be less fences. There would be more health food stores. Government would be very minimal, with very few or no laws at all (except for driving laws and rules that we would need to keep from running into each other). Animals would have more rights. There would be no wars. There would be more and better selections of size 15 shoes. There would be very little cattle because nobody would eat them. All food would be organic. Houses would be clean inside. Children would be the most important thing on earth. There would be no loud car alarms. And blah, blah, blah. Now in all fairness I have to say that many of these aspects stated above would apply for most of us (except the animal thing).

Part two....the not so good things. If the whole world shared my habits, moralities, and tastes things could be quite boring. There would be no loud music. There would be no music in restaurants. Nobody would dance. There would be very few professional sports. Many things would not get done because everybody would hate physical labor. There would be more accidents on the highways involving deer because there would be no hunting. Dogs would be freely running the neighborhoods in packs. There would be no "reality" shows on TV. There would be no large parties. There would be more car accidents because of all the naked people walking around. The only books sold at Barnes and Nobles would be self help, new age, and philosophy books. Rain would be more popular than sunshine. There would be no Christmas cards or outside Christmas lights. There would be no Indian gambling casinos (just the concerts). There would be no mixed drinks. There would be no churches. There would be no rap or heavy metal music. There would be no awards shows to honor movie stars. OK, now keep in mind, none of the above would be outlawed, they just wouldn't exist because there would be no interest in them. It would be a boring world indeed....but a very safe world.

Now to cap off this little disquisition of how the world would be if everybody was like me, I would like to share a few of the little things that I do that I would like to see everybody do. These are things that are simple and easy, and I think would make a difference....Bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store. Bag your own groceries. Grab a cart from the parking lot on your way into the store. Take your own trash out from the movie theatre. Put your towels in the hamper at the gym instead of on the floor. Don't let your dogs bark outside for than three minutes. Pick up somebody else's trash from the sidewalk. Share your passions and beliefs. Drive slower in neighborhoods. Give a few bucks to the Humane Society every year. Talk more about politics. And most of all....Try to see magic in everything, everywhere, everyday!

Indeed, it takes all kinds to make the world go round. If the whole world was like me, it wouldn't work. If the whole world was like you, it wouldn't work. But every now and then, it might be a good idea to stop and ask yourself the question....if the whole world was just like you, what kind of world would it be?

Posted by Joe Shaw at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I just read an article in the paper this morning about creationism and it fired me up a bit. I know that I've blogged about this before, however, I feel this is worth repeating. So here it is.....Isn't it amazing how some people can ignore science because it disagrees with the old testament? They tell us that we should accept creationism because the bible says it's so, even though it defies science, as well as logic on every level. And many of these same conservative right wing folks who ignore the science on evolution blindly accept the shabby excuses, distorted facts, and outright lies about why we went to war in Iraq. They say we should believe George Bush and support his cause because....well because George Bush says so, even though every reason we were given for going to war has been proven to be a distortion, an outright lie, or at the least, an exaggeration. But here's the kicker....when it comes to global warming, this same group says that we need more and better science before we reach any conclusions!

Posted by Joe Shaw at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Do you really do this from memory?" I asked as I leaned over the table trying to get a closer look at the Sand Mandala the Buddhist Monk had been laboring on for several days. Layed out before me was a complex structure of intricately placed grains of colorful sand. The Tibetan Monk (or Monks) will spend about 30 days making the Mandala out of sand and when it is finished it is carefully put into a jar and released into a river. The purpose is that whatever the monks were meditating on while making the Sand Mandala, usually peace, will be spread out to the world by releasing it into a river or the wind. It is truly a labor of love as well as a testimony to what can be done with enough patience and skill.

"Wow, that's beautiful" I said as stood over the Mandala with a can of "dust off" in my hands aiming it right at the Sand Mandala. The monk looked nervously at the can of "instant wind" probably trying to figure out what I was up to. "Dad, give me that" said my son Brady as he grabbed the can from my hands. The monk must have breathed a sigh of relief as we exited the halls of the BMU.

Let me back up a few minutes here. I had no intention of destroying the Sand Mandala, I swear! Brady and I had just exited the college bookstore where we had bought some computer programs for Brady's Mac. While we were there we asked if they had anything to clean the dust out of the inside of Brady's computer. After our purchases, Brady's hands were full so I offered to carry the can of "Dust Off". As we were exiting the bookstore I noticed the monk over by the stairs. I had heard that a monk was working on a Sand Mandala in the BMU but had never actually seen a Sand Mandala. "Brady, let's check it out" I said as we moseyed over to the table the monk was working on. I wasn't even thinking about what I had in my hand as I aimed the can of air spray right at the Sand Mandala to ask about it. It would have been an easy mistake to pull on the handle and set the air off. Thankfully my 14 year old son was conscious of the whole situation. I never had a clue until we were walking away and Brady mentioned what had just happened. "So that's why the monk was acting so weird", I thought out loud. If any of you ever watch "Family Guy", you'll understand how I felt like Peter Griffin at that moment.

Later as I thought about what I had just done, or worse yet, what could have happened, I laughed to myself at the idea of getting my ass kicked by a Tibetan Monk. But then again, I couldn't have blamed him. If you have the time, it really is worth a trip to the BMU to check out the Sand Mandala that is slowly taking shape. Just don't be waving around any cans of air spray when you do!

Posted by Joe Shaw at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The cold morning air pierced my jacket as I headed for the car to warm it up. "Come on doggies, lets go," I said while holding the back door open. They jumped in, eager to get out of the house and enjoy their morning trek down Esplanade to drop my son off at Chico High. Fifteen minutes later I'm walking into Bidwell Perk for a little morning pick me up. Same crowd, a few strange faces. I exchange smiles with a couple of folks that I must have met at some point in time but can't remember how I know them and don't really care. They don't either. Then there are always a few of those familiar faces you've seen around for years, the ones you avoid eye contact with because you've never formally met. You have this silent understanding with these people that if you never talk, then you don't have to acknowledge each other a thousand times in the years to come. I have this relationship with half of Chico. I suppose everybody does.

Next it's over to the paint store for a few supplies. "You haven't written a blog in a while," say's Jack, a Kelly Moore employee, as he walks by me into the office. "It's because of your mother Jack, she's not letting me get any sleep!" OK, I didn't really say that, I just wished I did. Why do you always think of the cool things to say after the fact?

Now it's about 9 AM, and I'm headed out to the job on the north end off of Keiffer Road. In the west I notice the snow draped over the foot hills and how it glistens in the morning sun light. As I drive out on north 99, I think about how little that area has changed in the 36 years I've lived in Chico. Orchards, green fields, scattered businesses, and run down houses fly by me as I reach over to turn on the radio. Ron Owens on 810 or Rush Limbaugh on 1290....screw it, their both gonna be babbling about the elections. I'm already bored with elections. I switch to FM instead for some music. Same old thing...."Why do you pick me up, Buttercup baby just to let me down"...."NOOOOOOO!".....Radio off.

I know, why don't I just think about what I could write about on my blog when I get time later this morning? Like Jack said, it's been a few days. There's so much going on to write about....the elections, that ridiculous budget Bush just came up with, the never ending war, our 9 trillion dollar debt, the economy....so much to bitch about! I don't know, who cares. Sometimes you feel like your either preaching to the choir or if they disagree with you, their probably not reading you anyway. So I guess I'll skip the whole blog thing again today. Maybe tomorrow I'll be fired up again to take on the task of enlightening the masses. I'll put republicans and religions in their proper place! I'll expose corporate greed! I'll nail the spin masters and right the wrongs! But not today. Today, I'm just enjoying......
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Posted by Joe Shaw at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When my daughter decided to take her daughter to Disneyland a few weeks ago, I advised her to try to go on a rainy day. The reason being that Southern Californians freak out over a little rain and like to stay inside. Turns out I was right. She went on a rainy day and there were no lines at all. To folks in the southern part of the state, when it's sprinkling it's raining and when it's raining it's storming. Having lived in both parts of the state, I can attest to the fact that they can say the same thing about us up here in the north when it comes to wind. We are wind wimps. That storm we had up here a few weeks ago, the one we will be talking about for years to come, would just be another windy day where I grew up.

The Santa Anna winds start out in the dessert and pick up force as they whip down thru the canyons of the Los Angeles and San Bernardino mountain ranges. I grew up in San Bernardino, right at the base of the El Cajon Canyon. I'm telling you, when the Santa Anna would come screaming down the canyon (and it literally screamed), eucalyptus trees would bow to her power. It wasn't uncommon to see the roof of a house caved in from a large eucalyptus. As a child I always enjoyed watching the tumble weeds racing along the side of our car. Fences everywhere were lines with trash from the constant winds.

As kids, if we wanted to go anywhere, we usually had to use our bicycles. Back then all of the bicycles were single gear, and a very high gear at that. I mean those old clunkers barely coasted down hill, much less went against the wind. To ride a one speed against the wind, you had to stand up and peddle. Now standing up and peddling could be very dangerous. Often the rubber part of the peddles were broke off and we were left with a slippery round metal extension. Since we could not afford to buy new peddles, we had to "settle to peddle on the metal". Often when you were standing up peddling against the wind, your foot would slip off of the slippery metal and your crotch would slam down on the bar that connected the seat to the handle bars (that metal bar that defines the difference between a boys bike and a girls bike). Any guy who has ever experienced this will agree with me that this was the definition of true pain. When women say that men don't know what it feels like to give birth, they don't know what their talking about. It would be easier to give birth to oversized twins than to slip off of the metal peddle when you were standing and peddling. When the wind was really bad we would just walk the bikes.

My deepest memory of the Santa Anna winds is the loneliness you felt on a windy day. The wind would isolate you and limit your activities. At night time it reminded me of a screaming banshee as it roared thru the trees and the attics and under the floors of the raised foundations. To this day I get instant deja vu whenever I hear the chains rattling on tether ball poles at empty school grounds. I actually miss that old Santa Anna, but I don't miss Southern California. The closest thing I have experienced in the north state that reminds me of the Santa Anna is a winter I spent living in the country out west of Orland.

There is something magical about the wind. On some deep level I think it brings up memories stored in our DNA, memories of living in caves and listening to the winds howling in the wilderness. It feels like God is talking or angels are whispering secrets. If it wasn't for all of the damage the wind bought during that storm a few weeks ago, it would have been a great day to just meditate, listen, remember, and enjoy. Confession: I did anyway.

Posted by Joe Shaw at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been trying to figure out why we accept the fact that the more money a candidate has, the better chance they have of winning. For the most part, they use their money for TV advertising. TV advertising is either cheap emotional feel good sound bites or negative hits against an opponent. The adds don't really address issues to any degree. So what does all of this say about the voting public? I'll tell you what it says....that we have the awareness of a brick wall. We are swayed by feel good sound bites and cheap psychological mind tricks that corporations have been using for years to get us addicted to junk food, make us think we need things that we don't, and believe in things that are not true.

Candidates claim on one hand that the American people are smart and have a good grasp of the issues and on the other hand they make their TV adds that prove they don't really believe we are as smart as they are telling us we are. This is our fault, not theirs. It's our fault because these adds work. We have allowed ourselves to be dumbed down to the level of allowing others to tell us what makes sense and what we need to survive and be happy. Politicians, corporations, and religious leaders know this quite well. They know what scares us. They know what makes us feel good. They know what we want to hear. They know what we react to. They know how the subconscious mind works. They know how to subliminally exploit our fears, our needs, and our desires.

The issue here isn't really about intelligence, were all quite capable of grasping the issues the candidates are talking about. What they are exploiting is our reactive nature. The more self aware an individual is, the less reactive they are. The less aware, the more reactive they are. Dogs are very reactive. Most of us rate somewhat higher than dogs on the scale of awareness and reactivity, but many of us do not. Many sporting events and rock concerts can attest to this fact. Leaders tap into this part of our psyche to start wars. Corporations use it to sell products. Musicians use it to sell music. Religious leaders use it to sell the fear of God.

It really boils down to just being aware. We need to know what, when, and why we are reacting to something. If we all took total responsibility for our actions and reactions, it would be a different world indeed.
We could not be "sold" on anything. All products, beliefs, political issues, everything really, would have to stand on it's own merit and logic. Honesty would prevail. Candidates would be real. What a world that would be!

Posted by Joe Shaw at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)