Soul and Flesh

Science has shown that we are not even a puff of air, our physical selves are mostly space and particles made of nothing but energy. Our physical existence is a tenuous structure with little foundation. It would seem that our body has little more basis than our soul.
We easily accept the body and other natural and human structure because we sense them. Due to need we have developed senses to interact with the other bits of matter around us. Our soul is not sensed by our external sensing structures, but is it sensed by our physical body?
When you feel the touch of your baby child’s breathe on your cheek your external sense structure is in play but something else happens as well, you get this feeling, this rush, an internal wellbeing. During the course of time lots of people and things touch you, lots of air brushes your cheek why do you not change internally every time a warm breeze blows? What mechanism is in play when you change in the presence of certain people or in certain place or in certain actions? Is it a system set up to sense the connection of souls, love?
Science can again explain the phenomenon of internal emotions through chemical release in the brain and elsewhere in the body, the expert can further expand to tell us why these feelings are needed so that procreation will take place and we will care for our young and self-protection. We can then build a total picture of human existence explained by science as a system and this system is inside the system we know as the universe.
So shall we accept the scientific view? Let’s say we do, what does that mean? If love is but a chemical reaction does that invalidate it? If the soul is just changes in the brain is it unreal? Our bodies are little more than nothing, neither is a rock, we sense a rock, or our arm, or our nose, but we also sense love in the touch of our child, or when we do something really nice for others, or someone does something for us. If our body is just next to nothing and our soul is next to nothing, what is the difference?
So here we are in the universe and we are on this little planet earth with nothing but air to protect us from the vacuum of space and certain death. We revolve around the sun that provides energy to all processes that we count on to exist. Our sun and our galaxy and our universe are all made of the same matter we are and that structure is nothing but fluff. It is big fluff and when we regard it with our external senses it is amazing fluff, but it is nevertheless no more real than we are.
If you think about this lack of substance of our bodies and our world then it can seem darn meaningless. So the other things we sense such as love, wonder, hate, surprise, lust, become really necessary to complete the picture so we don’t despair in our lack of physical substance. Our sense of self is then centred in the need of the things that are not experienced by the external senses.
So here is Christmas, the acknowledgement of a child who was born into a world of sparse existence to parents with little wealth among a conquered and heavily taxed people. In ancient text this child is claimed to be the son of God. Now the external senses tell us that a virgin birth is not possible, and God as a concept does not fit into our external sensation of existence. We have also established with science that we and our world are made of very little, and it is quite incredible that any of it exists at all, so let’s just place that context on the ancient story without other judgement. This child grew to a man and the man went around telling everyone that we had a responsibility to love and care for others and that material things are of little real value. He gathered some people and fleshed out the thoughts and they went forward in their lives and worked to realize his vision and wrote it all down and formed a structure to teach the ideas.
So now here we are a long time later and we have science and science says that our physical world is energy and space and little more and this is interesting, but it does not provide answers to why we are here. Then we have the touch of our baby, or our husband, our Wife, our Mom, our Dad or the good feeling of providing help or a gift to someone and how that make us feel, and that then provides some context to our existence.
So science and Jesus both say matter and the material world are fleeting and little more than fluff. Science describes the need for the chemical reactions to make us procreate and care for our offspring, or create art to feel good when times are bleak. Jesus says you must love and care for others as you would want to be cared for, and if you don’t then your life is without value.
So Christmas roles around and we gather to honour the baby and the ideas spawned from the stories. We share food and spend time together talking, hugging, and giving and the chemicals are released in our brain and we move forward in good cheer.
The immortality of the baby is not in question. Even if one might argue he might not be a deity then his life and ideas are immortal and important in each of us who celebrate this day regardless.
 

My Water

I have a simple question, if I didn’t pay my water bill would they come and shut my water totally off?  Another simple question, is it my right as a human to have access to clean water regardless of my social economic state? And yet another; is the delivery of water as a service what we pay for, or is it the water?

If I do not pay my water bill and have no economic means of purchasing water is there a source in my community where I can go and obtain clean drinking water without financial burden [I do not mean bottled water from a food bank as the financial burden is borne by someone else]?

If a person is without the financial means and further has a physical impairment that would prevent them from going and getting water from a communal source is our system set up to care for them?

One will argue that Canada has a social welfare system that protects the individual from this circumstance and they would be correct. If an individual lacks the basic necessities of life our system will provide for them, but what if our economic system degrades? Who controls our water?

Water outside of all other things we “require” is without peer. The need is so immediate and cannot be set aside for paperwork or difference of opinion or economic belt tightening. Water is now, basic and who we are in all ways. Oxygen is the only substance more immediate to our needs and it is not impeded by any pipeline or process.

Water is under the jurisdiction of a private company in Ingersoll. This company is partially owned by Ingersoll but it is in business to make money, is this right? CRU (Erie Thames)(ERTH) also handles the sewage and electricity. They can’t shut off the sewage and electricity is not a necessity for parts of the year in Canada. Water is a constant need.

I end with the original question. Is it my right to have access to water in my home year round or is there at least a place to get water if mine were shut off?

 

There are things to read on this:

http://www.righttowater.info/

http://www.canadians.org/water/

http://www.wwrf.org/waterdemocracy.htm

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/29/in_historic_vote_un_declares_access (Canada declined to vote for or against water rights??)

http://www.waterjustice.org/

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/22/from_melting_glaciers_to_structural_adjustment 

 

 

Motivation

I always look for motivation for being conscious of what I eat. I watch documentaries about genetically modified food, the hazards of processed foods, the mistreatment of animals and people in the production of our food and so on. I have made some progress in the quality and quantity of the food I eat but as a human often slip and or ignore the truth in favour of what I want.

Today a little thing has driven home a nice little message. I was eating a bag of Quaker Crisp Minis Dill Pickle flavoured rice cakes the other day in the car. I choose the rice cakes over chips because I perceive that they are somehow better for me. This morning I am driving to work and as I drive the sun hits the dash in a certain way and I see a “wet” spot on the dash. And in the centre is a large piece of dust. The dust it turns out is a spec of the dill pickle coating from the rice cakes and the wet spot is grease that has spread out from the spec of coating. A centimetre in diameter grease spot from on spec of a flavour coating on a rice cake!

I have today been tuned to a new outlook on what I am eating and the thousand or tens of thousands of the dill pickle coating specs I ate in one bag of rice cakes. Will I slip again? You bet I will but hopefully I will remember the spec and retune my consumption.

I believe in garbage, but why?

If we believe in the concept of garbage then everything we have, cherished or not, is garbage. You are sitting on garbage, eating garbage, sleeping in garbage and wearing garbage. It is only the action of decision and a moment in time that changes an objects status.  It is only an objects rejection due to its inability to fulfill its purpose in your eyes that sets an objects destiny.

If there is garbage then all things are trash based on arbitrary values placed on it using subjective rationale.

What if we changed that, what if we recognized everything as valuable in some context?

What if in our decision to purchase an item we asked ourselves how long will this be useful and once it is no longer useful to me who will use it next? Further how will an object in it's whole form or in its various materials and then raw material can be eternally used?

If an object is formed for long term use, repaired and valued by many over a long time. Then if its original function is lost can it be repurposed in whole or in part without energy use? When no part of the object can be repurposed any further how easy is it to get it back to its base resources and then those resources used again?

If your umbrella was not garbage when the individual raw materials were collected, and when the individual parts were manufactured, it was not garbage when the parts were assembled, it was not garbage when you purchased it, and it is not garbage when you used it, it was not garbage when you repaired it once or twice, when is it garbage, why does it become garbage?

What if we released ourselves from the concept of valueless objects and seen all things as resources in transition? What if quality included an emphasis on the repurposing of the object, its parts and in the end it raw material?

What if disposable was a dirty word?

I believe in garbage and objects often seem to have no value or are too hard to find value in, but why?

Can I change, maybe so, I will try, but what can be done in this disposable world?

Words

What words will win the day?
What turn of phrase will spark action?
What sentence will bring tears?
What story will inspire millions?
How will the story be told?
Will we recognize lines scribbled by fools?
Will we know the writings of the wise?
Words without action are hollow
Are actions without the proper words in vain?
Soar on a speech
run on a song
live in a poem
What words will win the day?

The Me That I Am

Fusion fission, universe constructed

Primordial puddle of chemicals.

Striving for life in the air no longer bound to salt water.

Long line of ancestors struggle to self-awareness,

struggle to art and society.

War upon war, men to crops, crops to men

European social constructs

German precision, Irish determination to survive

Grandfathers misted in time carry our DNA to a new world.

Oh Canada, so strong, so free.

Wealth by virtue of birthplace.

Maternal love, naive yet kind,

Paternal harsh fear,

both broken yet weld the next generation

Peers and burdens to good and evil

Every book that I read and understand.

Television sending my mind in too many directions.

Every voice that I hear, every soul that touches me

The love of a Great woman,

good and beautiful hearts of my young.

My inner spirit, forever pushing and controlling

The acts of kindness I pursue,

acts of kindness that are bestowed upon me.

The strength to reflect and examine the me that I am.

One Day In The Future

Bare cupboard,

bare shelves.

A hole in your stomach,

a hole in your heart.

Emptiness of poverty,

no prosperity.

You remember the blemished apple,

the restaurant meal too large to finish

the bread somewhat stale.

What you would give for even a morsel,

or a rotted bit.

In wealth there was waste,

recalled in your hunger,

Is this not Hell?

Highway to Peace

Finding peace

paddle to water

on the river.

Hidden mystery

living water

in the river.

Man and nature

living in harmony

near the river.

Our history

story of Canada

highway river.

Man in charge

nature vanishing

away from the river.

Find ourselves

find our place

look to the river.

Vibrant Summer

The strength of this summer was not in the beauty of the flowers but in the fact that we took time to notice. It was not in the absence of strife or in the plenty and abundant but in the fact that we were thankful. The bargains and windfalls of this summer did not make it what it was; it was the fact that we made proper use of them when presented to us.


We made the summer what it was by our attention to the human side of each other and our environment. We made the summer by recognizing the beauty that surrounded us and simple riches we enjoy.

From covered bridges to homemade pickles and paddling in the North, summer was ours. We did not fight a cause or demand justice, we simply lived life. We will stand for that which in not right, but it is just as important to watch your life and appreciate what you see.

Let the waves roll over your toes and sigh at the wonder of it all.

This Day?

So what is a day, how is it defined?

This one is not yet over yet I have cleaned out the eve troughs with the help of my sons. I have cut the lawn using my 60+ year old push mower (no gas and oil just sweat and toil).

Michelle and Tim are canning pickles made from Tim’s cucumbers he grew in his garden. I read an article on how to make my own Kefir (fermented milk beverage good for making you digestive system work well) so I can be healthy.

I spoke with my Dad and he told me a few stories from his youth and I wrote then down. He is in a mood to reminisce and I will have to go and visit this week.

There is a frog in our pond and the Roses of Sharon are blooming.

This day is not special or exciting, it is not one for the books, but it adds to the overall saga of this family. It will reinforce the collection of stories that a family builds if we choose to pay attention. A life is a lot of mundane tasks, eating and sleeping, infused with brief blooms of action and beauty, glory and sadness.

Such is life at the gates of Utopia.