These individuals, these bold courageous souls who dare to slap their truth right across their bumper, they are the earth shakers, the movers, the ones who are truly changing the world one message at a time. Thanks to their messages I have learned who to vote for, that arms are for hugging, that peace is better than war, that it's good to recycle, that Jesus loves me, that if I can read the small lettering then I'm too close, who's kid is an honor student, that if I don't like the way somebody is driving I can dial 1-800-E-A-T-S-H-I-T, that if guns are outlawed then only outlaws will have guns, that if I love my freedom I should thank a vet, and that shit happens.

But seriously....I've never had a bumper sticker. I think of them as automobile tattoo's and I'm just not into tattoo's. To me their a little too much like having yourself branded, except that they probably hurt more. I always thought that if I ever did have a bumper sticker it would say something like "Meaningless Bumper Sticker" or "Unfinished Bumper Sti". Or instead of a sticker that said "Vote yes on proposition D" I'd like to see one that said "Vote no on Preparation H". I don't know, maybe I'm being too anal.

They say that tall men usually develop back problems because, well, they're tall. This isn't the reason tall men have back problems. The reason tall men have back problems is because we have to bend over for everything we do! For instance, I love to cook. But after two hours of cooking and then cleaning in the kitchen, my back is killing me. Why? Because because everything in the kitchen is sized for women and short men. The counters, the stove, the sink, their all too low. Sure, I could have had my counters custom made when the house was being built, have everything about six inches higher, but what would that have done to the resale value if and when I try to sell the house?

It's not just kitchen counters, you have the same problem with bathroom counters and sitting at tables, you always have to hunch over. If I try to ride in my sisters Cadillac or my daughters BMW, I have to scrunch way down in the seat to make room for my head and then I have a problem with my legs scrunched up against the dashboard.

I've been reading about how all of the airlines are going to be adding more seats to be able to carry more passengers in the same amount of space. They are going from an average of 33 inches of leg room to 31 inches of leg room. The last time I flew, 33 inches of leg room was a joke, it was not do-able. And that was just a 90 minute flight from Sacramento to Seattle. So if I ever wanted to fly across country or over seas, I would have no choice but to upgrade to business or 1st class, and that cost like an extra $100,000, or something like that. So I drive everywhere.

Now here's the thing about living in California and driving when you want to take a trip. To get anywhere away from the west coast, you have to cross hundreds of miles of desert. Nevada does a good job of keeping us western drivers land locked from the rest of the country. When it comes to weekend trips, or even week long trips, I have gotten to know the west coast pretty well. In a week or less, I can go to pretty much anyplace in Oregon or California. I know every road in Oregon and California. I want to drive somewhere, anywhere, east of Nevada but it takes a week of driving just to get to the mid west and back, assuming you turn around and start back as soon as you get there. Not only that, my back gets sore from too much driving because of all the bending over I have to do when I cook!

I know, life is full of dilemmas and being tall is not the worst thing a person can have to deal with in life. But I do have to say that short guys, especially those guys who have what they call "short mans complex", they just don't get it. The world was made, it was designed, for you guys who are a comfortable five foot eight. It's easier for you guys to buy clothes, you don't have the back problems tall men have, you can drive any car you want, and best of all, you can fly with leg room to spare. If there is such a thing as "tall mans complex", I think I have it.

I know, this statement sounds like I'm trying to be deep or say something very profound, but the fact is, it's true and it has to do with everything. Let me back up a little....I recently experienced a change in my life that shook me to my core. The details are not important, I've already written about it. But the experience was so life altering and profound that it motivated me to look deeper into the idea of "change" and what that concept really means or implies. Here's what I've come up with so far....

Change is necessary. Without change there would be no evolution, no growing or maturing, no stories to tell. It is obvious to me that "change" is the basic mechanism that runs the universe, the mode of operandi that God has chosen to use in order to make things work. We humans have this habit of categorizing all changes in our life as being either good or bad. When the change is good, we feel in control of things, when the change is bad, we feel like a victim. I know I do.

If something happens that we have absolutely no control over, can you really say it is a bad thing? For instance, since everybody dies, wouldn't it be logical to say that death is a good thing? And since everything changes, could it be that all changes are good? Just because something is painful, does that mean it is bad? Is it bad or maybe just part of the process? What process? The process of becoming more than who you are. Isn't that what experience is all about....becoming more? How? Through change!

Maybe our problem is not with change. Maybe our problem is with our idea about change. Maybe we just need to change how we look at change. When you look back over your life, hasn't it been because of changes that you have come to be at this very point you are at right now? Didn't every change ultimately lead you to a better place, even though there may have been some pain during the process? Shouldn't that tell you that if you are at a place in life that you are not happy with in this moment, that it is only because you are not seeing the "whole process" or the bigger picture? If everything in the past always worked out eventually, then it makes perfect sense that everything in the present moment will work out eventually.

So to me, it boils down to....how do we change our idea about change? If we can face all changes in life with a positive attitude, it sort of takes the wind out of the sails of pain. There is a poster hanging on my wall, right over the top of my computer screen. I printed four big words on this poster to remind me of what I need to do to face unwelcome changes. The four words are....Love, Commitment, Honor, and Courage. These four words, or attributes, help me to change my idea about change. They help to alliviate fear and they motivate me to get through a painful experience with more optomism. Here's how I try to apply them....

Send out love to every player in the change you are experiencing. Send love to people you think may be trying to harm you, send love to the whole situation you are experiencing, and send love to whatever pain or depression you may be experiencing because of the change you are going through. Commit to doing your part during this change (do your best and let God do the rest) with Honor and Courage. This is important because your life is part of a story and there are always other players in your story. These other players are watching you to see how you will handle the changes you are experiencing. I believe that we all have a responsibility to act in accordance with our highest moral principals, to "be true to your heart". When we do, we instill strength and inspire others to face their own changes with love, commitment, honor, and courage. To me, this is how we all bring each other up...not by what we preach but by what we do and how we do it.

I don't mean to sound preachy or to come off like a "know it all" when I write about these sort of things. I'm just trying to share what I have and am experiencing and I understand that my truth about these things may not work for others or conform to their "truth". It's been said that we best teach that which we most need to learn, and I have a lot to learn, so thank you for bearing along with my occasional diatribes.

My 15 year old son Brady is obsessed with digital filming. He has spent hundreds of hours at his computer editing short films he has made. He's always getting new and up dated software which allows him to create some pretty cool effects. He has surpassed his teacher in film class with his technological abilities, as well as every student at Chico High, and he is only a sophomore. The problem is, until he gets into college, he has nowhere to go to learn more about film making except for what he is able to teach himself.

About two months ago Brady and I were walking our dogs in upper park on the ridge above Horseshoe Lake. When we go out walking we always have deep conversations about life, UFO's, making movies, music, life after death, creative thinking, manifesting your dreams, you know, all the important stuff. On this walk Brady mentioned that he had run across a cool web site about the "New York Film Academy". It seems they offer summer camps in film making for serious teens who are into film making. They have these camps in New York City, at Harvard University, Disney World, Paris France, and in California at Universal Studio's. At Universal Studios you stay for three weeks in an apartment complex (supervised) right across the street from Universal. Everyday the students go to the back lot of Universal Studio's where, along with professional instructors, they have use of the back lots as well as sound stages to film, act, and edit their own movies. Even Steven Spielbergs son has gone to this camp. Sounds like the perfect thing for Brady except for one problem....it cost thousands of dollars. I told Brady that I just couldn't afford the program, at least not this year.

Skip ahead in time to two days ago....

My niece Dawn lives and works in Hollywood as a casting director. Two days ago she calls me out of the blue and explains the following story to me....Her best friend just broke up with her boyfriend and she moved out. She needed a place to stay for the summer and since Dawn has an extra bedroom in her apartment, she took her in. The girls ex boyfriend (they are still close friends) was so grateful that Dawn was helping out his ex girlfriend, he told Dawn that he owed her a big favor. What does this guy do for a living? He owns "New York Film Academy"! Dawn, knowing Brady's passion for movie making called to see if Brady would be interested in taking the three week course at Universal studios, for free, if she could arrange it. To make a long story short, he was and she did. So Brady's going to go to Hollywood this summer to study film making and make short films at Universal Studio's, can you believe it?

Coincidence or synchronicity? I call it a miracle!

Modern technology and old world spirituality cannot co-exist. You wouldn't give a loaded gun to two six year olds having a playground spat and tell them to try to work their problem out peacefully, but if you can't, well here's a gun. That is exactly where mankind is at in the twenty first century. We are like immature children playing with guns. Most of the world is spiritually immature. We may try to work out our problems peacefully when we can, but we always have the loaded guns pointing at each other, and, as we demonstrate time and time again, we are not afraid to use them.

Throughout history, we have always settled our differences with violence and force. Technology no longer allows us that luxury. When it comes to technology, we are not going to go backwards, we are always going to go forward. This is well and fine if....we are growing and maturing spiritually while we grow intellectually.
Here's the problem, as I see it, why we are not growing spiritually.

There was a point in mans early evolution when we developed the awareness to wonder why something is. It must have started when we sat around campfires and stared at the stars or the sun and started talking to each other about the lights in the sky, wondering why they were there and what they were. And one of the cave men with a gift of story telling, made up a whole scenario about why the fire was in the sky. I would have called this caveman the first priest. We've been making up stories about creation ever since, they just keep getting more elaborate.

Religions began as a result of these stories. Problem is, we have entered our technology phase of evolution and brought along our story telling phase with us. We need to grow up and quit selling each other on these silly stories, or at the least, update our stories. Stories in and of themselves are harmless, it's the rules that we derive from them that make them dangerous. Rules and guidelines soon turn into dogma and theology. Dogma and theology stunts our growth because it slows down the necessary process of changing our stories as we move along other lines of evolution.

True spirituality has to do with mankind's ability to understand himself in relation to his environment, to each other, and ultimately to his source, or God. Religion stunts that process by not allowing their own stories to evolve. I believe that man, as a conscious and aware being, has the ability to become self aware. Self awareness is not "I think, therefore I am." Self awareness is, "I am, therefore I think." In other words, self awareness is knowing that you are more than your thoughts. When you experience yourself as a higher conscious being, that you are an awareness above and beyond your mind or ego, you understand your connection to everything else. If religion could lead us to that awareness, it could rightfully claim itself to be "spiritual". However, since religion does exactly the opposite, inhibits it's followers from experiencing their oneness and connection as well as their true self, it is anything but spiritual.

You cannot experience self awareness when you are being told to look everywhere except within yourself. Religion blinds and side tracks us by teaching that God is "out there" which leads to separation anxiety of the soul. The religious powers that be understand all to well that when a person feels alone and afraid, they will have a need to latch onto something that gives them a sense of security, even if it is a false sense of security, at least it's something and thereligious hierarchy are more than willing to be that thing the person will reach out to.

My point here is, religion has us in a stranglehold by not encouraging our spiritual evolution which MUST take place in order for us to survive our technology phase. As I said before, the doctrine of separation encourages competition. We compete because we see ourselves separate from each other. Competition can be fine when it is used to better oneself by measuring ones effort against another. However we are living in a world that can no longer afford to see itself as separate and divided. Competition among nations is leading to global pollution and mass starvation. When you mix technology and competition, you end up with weapons that are so powerful that you may as well point them at yourself as to each other.

On the other hand, the doctrine of "oneness" encourages compassion and empathy because we understand our connection to each other. If the whole world could change it's view from separation to connection, we would begin to work together to build each other up rather than compete for our own personal gain. We would understand that when we build each other, we all benefit. And in time, that awareness would lead to unilateral disarmament of WMD's, weapons that we may as well be pointing at our own heads. It starts with a shift in our thinking. It starts by changing or updating the stories we've been telling each other about the fire in the sky. It starts by realizing that we are all equal because we share the same life force.

I want to swim beneath a waterfall in Hawaii

I want to find an Indian arrowhead

I want to drive a corvette....really fast

I want to drive a loud and very large Harley Davidson motorcycle

I want to see a real UFO

I want to write a book

I want to hold a monkey

I want to take a month off

I want to see a real ghost

I want to smoke a large black Cuban cigar

I want to spend a rainy day in a small and boring mid western town

I want to see six figures in my bank account, with all my bills caught up

I want to drive a bulldozer

I want to go to Tombstone Arizona

I want to play a song with Justin Hayward

I want to see Richie Furay, Steven Stills, and Neal Young in concert, playing together again as The Buffalo Springfield

I want to see what a $2,000 bottle of wine taste like

I want to drive across the US without a map and spend half my time totally lost, not even knowing what state I'm in

I want to be the catalyst to be able to make somebody else's dream come true

That's about it, that's everything I want to do.

I happen to have a few thoughts on this subject myself. First of all, there's always going to be a problem when everybody involved claims to be speaking from "knowledge". Knowledge means "acquaintance with facts". But What is a fact? It is something that is true, right? But what if there were no absolute truth? What if knowledge, truth, and facts were only data that we accumulate from our own personal experience i.e. maybe reality has a different meaning to each observer. Quantum physics says this is so. When we look at anything, a truth, a fact, a thing, an idea, something written, something spoken, an experience....anything at all, we see one of two things....we either see the highest potential of that observable "fact" that we are capable of understanding at the moment, or we see what we want to see. Is either one of these the whole "truth" of that which we are observing or experiencing? I don't think so.

So if we put the "truth" aside and look at it from a view point of "what I am observing is leading me to this conclusion", we can begin to have a real discussion about our different view points.

So setting aside what ever the "truth" is, lets look at one simple observable fact, at least from my observation of what this fact says to me. Fact....Christian thought, the Christian message, the whole package of what Christianity has been selling for two thousand years, is not working. In fact, none of the religious teachings on this planet are working. We are on the brink of self annihilation! Shouldn't that be telling us something? At the least, shouldn't that be telling us that we have to change our way of thinking about things?

New age thought is only that....a new thought, a new way of looking at things. New age thought says that if a certain way of thinking does not serve you, change your way of thinking. Religious thinking has not served the world well. It's time to change our way of thinking, not abandon all of the principals that have served us well, and many of the Christian principals have indeed served us well, but to take a long hard look at the principals that have led us down this path of self destruction and see if we can't observe a "higher truth" within the truth that we have lived by.

Quantum physics has shown us that everything in the universe is connected, there is no such thing as "separate". There is no sharp point where something ends and something else begins. In the quantum world, and that is the world we are all living in, everything is connected by energy because everything is energy.

Christianity has always taught that all things are separate. You are there and I am here. Even God is not a part of you but a separate entity "out there" somewhere. New age says that God is infused in everything and that all things, everything in creation, is a part of God. The doctrine of "separation" divides us. When we are divided we become competitive. The doctrine of "oneness" encourages compassion and empathy. When we see our connection to each other as well as all other living creatures and even the planet itself, we are automatically elevated to a higher standard of morals. The more empathetic we are the more we work with each other, the more competitive we are, the more we work against each other. Competition is driving us to extinction.

This is the main message of "New Age" thought. It's not about undermining religion, it's about encouraging religion to take another look, a broader look, at our place in the universe and our relationship to each other as well as our relationship to God. It has to start with a whole new definition of what "truth" is. Once you "know" something, you have turned an idea, a concept, into an absolute. However, if you simply observe, you are leaving the option open that there may be a higher truth to what you are observing, a truth that you will see when you are ready to see it. So....why not go with what works and be open to change what doesn't? This is simply a new "thought" that we need in this "new age". Our survival may depend on it.

My passion for eucalyptus goes back to my childhood in Southern California. I grew up on the west side of San Bernardino right at the base of the Cajon Pass. The streets in my neighborhood, as well as much of the city, were lined with giant eucalyptus. The Santa Anna winds would pick up their power in the high desserts and find their way into the valley by way of the passes in the San Bernardino mountain range. As the Santa Anna whipped down through the Cajon Pass it picked up momentum and by the time it reached the valley it was like the breath of an angry God releasing it's fury on all that stood in it's way. As a child, I saw many houses destroyed by a eucalyptus who lost it's battle with the Santa Anna. I never worried about it happening to my house because the Cajon Pass was at the back of our house which meant that the trees always blew away from our house, never towards it.

We had three eucalyptus trees in my front yard, out along the street. With branches growing close together, they were perfect for climbing. You could climb as high as your nerve would allow you to. I never made it over half way but my brother used to talk about getting closer to the top on a windy day and "riding the tree". I spent a good part of my childhood sitting in those large trees, just watching the world happen below. Between my violent father and all of the low lifers and crazies in my neighborhood, I never felt safe....except when I was up high in my eucalyptus tree, that was my safe place, the world couldn't touch me there. To this day whenever I smell eucalyptus, I am not only smelling my childhood, I am smelling comfort and safety.

I know that eucalyptus don't do well where it freezes which is why in Northern California you see them in greater abundance on the coast than in the valley, and it seems that they grow much larger on the coast than they do in the valleys. On highway 5, between Red Bluff and Davis, there are large groves of eucalyptus every few miles where they were planted, I believe, for wind breaks. Every time I see one of those forest's, a part of me wants to walk into the middle of it and just get immersed in the pungent fragrance, the piles of shedding bark, and the inviting branches that always seem ready to just swoop you up and embrace you.

We all have our favorite things in life and I believe that in the afterlife, we will be surrounded by those things that we love so much in this world. My afterlife is going to be about golden sunsets, peaceful glowing twilights, light rain streaming down window panes of warbled glass, black billowy storm clouds moving in over the plains, rainbows that stretch out into eternity, rock walls that meander through fields and over rolling hills, and yes, lots of giant eucalyptus trees. The streets of Heaven may be paved with gold, but at least in my Heaven, they will be lined with eucalyptus.

The best thing I can do is teach him and teach him well. Brady thinks of me as a pretty cool guy....except when it comes to driving. When we talk about driving, I am 100% nerd. I am going to teach him, the best that I can, about defensive driving. Anybody can learn to drive. The real skills are not in driving as much as they are in anticipating what other drivers are going to do. It's kind of like poker, it's more about reading other people than it is about the cards in your hand.

If there's one thing I have learned from raising kids, it's that you can't stop them from growing up, so you may as well help them along. They are their own person, with their own agenda, and their time with you is temporary. They came here to live their life just like you did and you are only a part of their life, although a very important part. Sure you want to teach them all you can about relationships, handling and making money, politics, health and nutrition, dealing with loss, cleaning a house, and the million other things that life is going to teach them with or without your help, but will do a better job of it with your help. But there's something about driving a car that stands out and apart from everything else they need to learn. Loosing a girlfriend won't kill you. Going broke won't kill you. A dirty house won't kill you. Bad manners won't kill you. But somebody making a mistake on the highway will.

That is why I tell all of my kids when they get their learners permit that the most important thing they will ever do in their life is to drive a car. It is important because it is potentially deadly every time you get behind the wheel, and we get behind that wheel everyday. It's not only potentially deadly to you but to everybody you pass on the road. I told Brady yesterday, when we were traveling up highway 99, that you need to think of every car you are passing on the road as a loaded weapon. That other driver does not mean to use that weapon on you but the fact is, when you pass a car at 60 miles an hour about 8 feet apart from each other, you may as well be standing ten feet apart with a loaded gun aiming it in each other direction, about eight feet to the right of their head, and pulling the trigger. Your chances of surviving a head on collision at 60 miles an hour are about the same as surviving a bullet to the head. That is the reality of what is happening every time you pass a car on the highway. That is what you are sending your child out to do when he starts driving.

On the lighter side....I've been driving all of my life and I'm still here, so maybe Brady will survive the dangers of driving long enough to become a preachy old bastard like myself. All I can do is teach him everything I know, trust in his skills, cross my fingers, and hope that God has sent him some good angels.

Whenever I hear a Christian who seems obsessed with condemning homosexual behavior, my first thought is that this person must have some unresolved gay issues with himself. Being straight or being gay does not screw you up. What screws you up is being one and pretending to be the other. When you are not ready to recognize an aspect of yourself or a certain behavior pattern within yourself, you become hyper aware of that behavior in other people.

Now this is not to say that every (perceived) negative behavior we witness in others is an unresolved issue we have with our selves. I think it has to do with making a judgement call based on a negative emotional reaction versus making a judgement call when you observe a negative behavior by one person having a negative impact on another person.

There is a sharp contrast between the idea of a man making love to a consenting woman, and a man raping a woman. A person with warped views about sex and personal boundaries might easily confuse the difference. There is also a sharp contrast between the idea of a man making love to a consenting woman, and a man luring or forcing a female child (or allowing himself to believe that the child is consenting) into sex. Again, a person with warped views about sex or personal boundaries may confuse the difference.

Following that same thought, there is just as sharp a contrast between the idea of a homosexual man making love or having sex with another consenting homosexual man, and the idea of a homosexual man luring or forcing a boy into sex. Again, only a homosexual with warped and distorted views about sex and personal boundaries would ever confuse the difference. My point here is that you cannot equate homosexuality to pedophilia any more than you can equate consenting sex to rape, or straight sex to pedophilia. The connection just isn't there. However, it seems important to most folks who condemn homosexuality, to equate the two. Worse yet, they often connect homosexuality to bestiality. I can only imagine how a healthy gay man or woman must roll their eyes over this stuff. Talk about childish nonsense!

When you make these silly connections based on your emotional reactions to something you do not agree with, and especially if it upsets you, you are demonstrating not only your own ignorance about the psyche of the human condition, you are also exposing your own unresolved issues. I think you first need to forgive yourself for what you might be feeling deep inside, and then recognize these feelings and come to terms with them. It's ok to just be who you are. Or you can do it the Christian way and just....pray the gay away!

We are experiencing unprecedented economic and financial hardships. Families are having to think outside the box in order to make ends meet. Government agencies need to do the same. When things get crazy, you have to do crazy things, or as author Neal Donald Walsch puts it...."When everything changes, change everything."

Hard times call for taking a hard look at what is, and possibly making temporary changes to get people working again. Zoning laws exist, in part, to protect the integrity of neighborhoods and communities, and that's a good thing. But perhaps now would be a good time to consider tweaking some of the zoning laws (and maybe the green line?) in order to prime the local building industry and gets things moving.

I believe there are many neighborhoods that are zoned R-1 that could be changed to an R-2 zoning without much negative impact. What would this do? It would help the economy in several ways. If people could have a mother in law unit built in their back yards or over their garage, it would generate more income to the house hold. They could take advantage of historical low interest rates that are in effect right now. When you build a new house (or an extra unit on your property) you put people to work. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters, all of the trades as well as the many retail businesses that support the building industry are working again.

I don't think the alley houses in the Avenues were originally part of those neighborhoods when they were built. Something happened that motivated the land owners in the Avenues to convert their back lands to small houses. Was it possibly during the depression when many of them were built?

New homes are in the tank and they will be until we pull out of this recession. If the cities and counties would loosen up their zoning laws, even temporarily, it could be one way to get people working again.

I have always been fascinated by spiritual issues because it is my belief that we are all spiritual beings operating inside a physical body. Therefore, if our very nature is spiritual, or at least something more than physical, then it must be our divine right to question the spiritual nature of things. Even if you are an atheist, you have to admit that there is at least an ethereal aspect to our psyche because of the nature of thought. Science knows very little about thought. Science doesn't know if thoughts are produced by brain activity or something else. Besides thoughts, what are feelings? What are emotions? What are ideas? What is love? What is fear? Where do these things come from and where do they reside? They must be more than a piece of meat vibrating and spilling chemicals around in the cranium.

Are thoughts and feelings a result of things that we do or are we a result of our thoughts and feelings? How do they relate to who we really are? Science and religion are not as much at odds as many might think they are. What they share in common is that they both look for answers from outside sources. But what if the answers are not to be found outside of ourselves, but somewhere else? Then could it be that science and religion are asking the wrong questions, or maybe just taking the wrong approach?

The problem with science is that it tends to question only that which it is capable of observing. If science cannot detect the existence of something, then that thing is not worth considering. This is why science has yet to consider the nature of the soul, life after death, the existence of God, or anything they cannot measure, dissect in a lab, or see through a telescope or microscope.

Religion likes to think that it tackles the bigger questions of life, but does it? It seems to me that most religions are based on things that were written a long time ago by men who claimed to be inspired by God, and their logic dictates that if these men were inspired by God, then what they have written is Gods word. But is that really logical? What about the things they have written that have proved to be wrong? What about the things they teach that make no sense? Shouldn't the teachings of God at least make sense?

Can you say that man has free will but if he makes the wrong choice he will suffer eternal damnation? That makes no sense! That is not free will. To do anything that would lead to eternal damnation would be insane, not a free will choice, but just plain insanity. Therefore free will and eternal damnation cannot co-exist. Churches teach that we have a soul. To say that we have a soul is to insinuate that we are something other than the soul. Are they saying that we are the body and as body we have a soul? Do they not also say that we are more than our bodies? Churches say that God is perfect, and yet they say that we hurt and sometimes anger God when we sin. If God is perfect, He is beyond hurt and anger, and beyond a need to be worshipped. Point is, these things don't make any sense.

The question should not be about who is right about God or mans spirituality. The question should be....What is the best way to approach the bigger questions and mysteries of life? Yes, you will get meaning from scriptures, religions, and science....if you do not question what they do not answer. Are you satisfied with what they have given you? I'm not. So where do you go if you want more?

My answer to that question would be this....don't go anywhere. We are a microcosm of God and whole universe. We are infused with wisdom and knowledge, it lies at the essence of our consciousness. Discover who you are to understand what is. God speaks to us indirectly through scriptures and messengers, but He speaks directly through our hearts. Churches try to deny this simple fact of life because if we have a direct open channel to the almighty, then we have no need for an indirect channel provided by their teachings and writings. If you think you need the indirect channel, then you do, and in this respect, churches are important.

The biggest problem with I have just said, and what many would take direct issue with is the fact that so many have gotten it wrong when they reacted to "direct information from God". How can this be? Simple. Most of mankind is in the early stages of figuring out the difference between the ego and the higher consciousness, or soul. The ego creates a false sense of self identity. If you don't know the difference, it's easy to get caught up in the illusion of the false self. You can think you are speaking from the heart when in reality, you are speaking from pure vanity.

When you speak from the ego you speak from a place of judgement, anger, fear, power, vanity, and a very strong need to be right. When you speak from the soul you speak with love and compassion, there is no judgement, and there is no need to be right. I believe that Jesus spoke from the soul. I also believe that his followers never quite understood him or his message. They screwed up when they elevated the messenger above the message. If you are a Christian and what I have just said angers you, then it proves my point.

I never understood why most people are not in awe of this thing called life. We take everything for granted when there is so much going on around us all of the time that should be blowing our minds! Why aren't we all trying to understand what life is about? Why aren't we all asking more important questions? Since I have decided to step out of the arena of political blogging, I might spend more time looking at some of the mysteries of life that I have always found fascinating. No, I don't pretend to have the answers, but I think I have some pretty good questions.

There are too many things wrong and from what I have seen there is not one politician in any level of government who has any real interest in righting these wrongs. The tax system is wrong. Greedy unions are wrong. The NRA is wrong. Trade deficits are wrong. Off shore tax shelters are wrong. Propping up banks and corporations while the small business man is left to fail is wrong. Our boarder policies are wrong. No bid contracts are wrong. Insurance companies making decisions on our health care is wrong. Politicians who expect us all to give more while they protect their salaries and perks are wrong. Borrowing on our children's future is wrong. Allowing social security to go broke is wrong. If a company is too big to fail then it's too big to exist and allowing them exist is wrong. Trusting corporate and banking industries to self regulate is wrong.

But here's the thing....these are some of the real problems our country is facing right now, and yet, these are all problems that are getting ignored, have always been ignored, and continue to get swept under the table. Instead they keep us focused on gay marriage, abortion, terrorist's on monkey bars, gun control....issues that have nothing to do with the real problems we are facing, and we buy right into it.

In the meant time, nothing changes and nothing gets fixed. That's why I'm embarrassed, because I have believed there really were elected officials who had our best interest at heart, but I was wrong, they really don't! That's why I am not voting for another politician. Instead, I will look for leaders, for persons with real vision who will tackle the real issues and be willing to put country before themselves, for men and women of a high moral caliber who will not try to fool me or con me by trying to stir me to an emotional frenzy over whatever the flavor of the day issue is. Then I will vote again. I'm not going to hold my breath looking for such a person.

For me, the first clue in this puzzle has something to do with relativity. Everything is relative to something else, therefore good and bad are also relative. We are quick to label things good or bad because of the judgmental nature of our minds. But how often does something that we label bad turn out to be good and something that we label good turn out to be bad? So when this happens, was it good or bad? When you lose a job and you feel that it was bad that you lost it but you end up with a better job because of it, was losing that job good or bad? Same thing when relationships go sour. They always lead to finding somebody else, usually somebody who is better for us.

So I guess the deeper question is....is there really such a thing as good and bad? I think there is. From my point of view, we all come to this world with a purpose. I would say that anything that leads you towards fulfilling that purpose you could call good and if it leads you away from that purpose you could call it bad. But even then, nothing really leads you away from something you are meant to do, it only side tracks you. Maybe "bad" could be defined as anything that goes against your inner core values because when you act out against your true values, somebody in some way usually gets hurt. But then again....maybe they're getting hurt is an experience they need for their personal growth. That is the yin and yang, the dance of life.

The way I see it is that when something we call "bad" happens to somebody who we might think doesn't deserve to have that experience, maybe were just missing the bigger picture. When I look back on my life I have to say that everything that ever happened to me and everything I have ever done always led me to a higher purpose or a better experience. Rarely did I see it that way when I was enmeshed in a painful experience. I also have to say that I have done a lot of things that definitely side tracked me, I've wasted a lot of time. But since everything led me to a better place eventually, I find these days that I am not so quick to call an experience I am having as being good or bad.

It is our basic nature to struggle to survive, so when something is painful we feel our survival being threatened. Therefore we try to evade painful experiences which is why we call them "bad". But from a deeper perspective, I don't think we are really that concerned if something is painful or not. From a spiritual point of view, I think we know that we need certain experiences and the soul is not so concerned with how painful the experience is, but rather if the experience will lead us to a greater understanding and broader awareness of ourselves and the world around us, or towards whatever our divine purpose is, our own personal goals.

So do bad things really happen to good people or do good people just have the experiences they need to move along in life? When that journey takes us to a better place, was it ever really a bad experience....if it got us there?