Saturday, November 8, 2014



The World Wearing Filters



The problem with viewing the world through filters is that you are not seeing reality, but only a limited version of it.  You therefore integrate reality in pieces and end up with a worldview that may please you, but is actually like a big block of Swiss cheese, filled with holes.

One needn't dwell on negativity in order to see the world as it is.

One major insight that my sister had years ago, which she shared with me and I have never forgotten, was a cascade of thought that she experienced while driving alone.  She thought of all the people in the world that were dying at that instant, and how many people were sad and grieving for the loss of their loved ones.  But then she suddenly realized that there were just as many people being born, and that everywhere happy parents were celebrating the beginning of new lives, and people who were already here were celebrating birthdays.

In that instant, she had glimpsed the symmetry of the universe, where each negative is balanced by a corresponding positive.  Had she been wearing her "feel-good" filters at that instant, she would have never been able to experience that revelation.  Most of us prefer to not to see things that displease us in life, especially vile, evil things that no sane person wants to witness.  However, seeing the evil in the world needn't depress us, so long as we recognize its lesson.  It teaches us that it is not the path to be on, for it yields the opposite of joy.

We should not ignore evil and spout euphemisms of joy, but instead, learn to recognize and understand evil for what it is, so that it reinforces one's beliefs in the path to goodness.  It is no easy trick to be able to stare down evil, and many prefer to look away.  But in order to integrate reality accurately it must be viewed without filters.

Hugging trees and mystically believing in a better world is fine, so long as one realizes that it takes a lot of hard, concentrated effort and work to build a better world. 

Evil must be confronted head on at times, and fought desperately, or it will consume the unwary individuals who fail to recognize it as a malevolent force that must be dealt with.  To look away or ignore it allows it to thrive.

We ignore that with which we do not wish to deal, at our own peril.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Future American Republic



Today during the early-morning twilight between sleep and waking consciousness, through the direction of mental forces greater than my conscious ability to muster, I received an epiphany that moved me several planes higher in universal consciousness.  I cannot at this juncture share the full context of that revelation, but I can at least say this. 

All governments on planet earth are illicit and must be overturned for the betterment of mankind.

In fact, the very idea of "government" as currently conceived by most individuals on this planet, is wrong, and against the intrinsic nature of man.  The American republic, as first conceived and implemented by our forefathers, came closest (in modern earth's history), to approximating an ideal solution,  but it has so far mutated in its never-ending mission-creep as to be unrecognizable to our founders.

Our original republic was (as per our constitution) free from income taxes, and we survived by trade tariffs for the first 150 years of our nation.  That is as it should be.  All income tax is illicit, and therefore, illegal.  One only need look at the growth of central government and the consequential loss of liberty to realize that the citizens of our republic have been hoodwinked, duped, and robbed repeatedly since its inception.  Moreover, the ability to wage wars and kill our fellow individuals on the planet has  greatly increased with higher taxes on both individuals and corporations. 

Our current model is all wrong and must be changed.

In fact, the whole idea of "governing" individuals by force and threat of force and imprisonment is an illogical, misconceived ideology.  We do not need forceful governance, but instead, need a "coordinating cooperative" that serves individuals more befitting to their needs, and which provides for the common defense in less invasive ways that prevent foreign aggression by our military.

Everything has gone awry from what our forefathers had intended, and there is no solution in sight, unless we redefine the best purpose and methodology of the systems that were designed to serve us, (not to imprison us, persecute us as individuals, and extort money from us as slave laborers who must work a third of every year just to pay taxes that have been illegally levied upon us).

Remember, that our republic was based upon the god-given rights of individuals to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and then reflect upon the system that we have inherited.  It is not the republic demanded by our Constitution.

Saturday, November 1, 2014


Writing the Dog

Chapter 11 - Tragedy at Chamizal Park


El Paso was chosen as a seminal location in the novel not just because it is a gateway to Mexico and a beautiful city, but because Chamizal Park offered such a powerful metaphor for all that was taking place in the novel, and which would ultimately take place in the future. The unique nature of the history of the area lent itself to the turbulence and violent upheaval that had to occur in the story.

While the story does showcase El Paso at points, it was an organic development that came naturally from the circumstances of the plot and not something that happened only because I like the town. The side-by-side cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, and the stark dichotomy that they paint, in reality, as well as in the novel, make the location uniquely suited for the tale that the Dog tells.

Residents of El Paso will no doubt recognize many familiar places and details that will be of no special significance to those that do not live there. I have always loved El Paso, since the first time I saw it as a young man, back in the days when it was still a quiet small town. I was therefore delighted to learn as I was writing the novel that the city had displaced Honolulu as the safest large city in the United States. But it also struck me as that much more incredible to read of the many murders just across the border in Juarez. Of course, in the novel, one will find how that reality helped to ignite la Nueva Revolucion Christiana, or the New Christian Revolution, and Juarez is therefore also a very important puzzle piece in the saga.

Anyone who reads the story will no doubt recognize now, and in the future, how reality often mirrors fiction.