The Voice from the Back Row: Off the Bandwagon

By Diane Drummond

The Voice from the Back Row: Off the Bandwagon began as a simple blog. As the number of postings grew, the impulse to put them in book form increased as well. This book is a compilation of the first 130 posts, and covers the time period from September of 1915 to April of 2021, including both the times of the comparative normalcy in which the energy for change was building and the definitive trigger of the present, the emergence of the Coronavirus Covid 19, which threw that apparent normalcy into utter chaos. The book contains both the author’s personal experiences and her commentary on political and social issues of the times. The posts encourage the reader to look beyond the rhetoric of the media, political figures and popular thought and think for themselves about where events are leading us and the nature of progress itself. When something changes, something is gained, and something is lost. Too often, people do not think about the exchange before the change is set. This book encourages us to take a deeper look at where we are headed, and to be a participant in creating the truly functional world we all desire, in which life is respected, all peoples thrive, and in which compassion, gentleness and stewardship replace conflict, death, greed and dominance. Such change begins with our own inner work and extends into that which we see as outside of us. It includes the Earth, our magnificent and nurturing home in the cosmos. The book is a work to be savored as it is read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781982269081

Diane Drummond

Diane Drummond has spent a lifetime observing life and pondering how people interact with each other, themselves and the Earth through their behavior, beliefs, words, politics, difficulties, and joys. She has traveled widely, both as a child and an adult, and has lived in and observed a variety of cultures. She speaks three languages. She has experienced life as a mother and homemaker, a government employee, a teacher of young children and a mentor of older children and young adults. She loves both reading the words of others and creating through words herself. She is passionate about the Earth and about how humans can relate to the Earth and all its denizens and to each other and the overarching Creative Force which envelops us all in ways that engender the health and beauty of the entire interconnected natural system. If her work can help to bring about that goal, she will be happy.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 Diane Drummond.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use

of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical

problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The

intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you

in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any

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the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

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models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-9822-6909-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7123-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-6908-1 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date:   11/16/2021

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Welcome to The Voice from The Back Row: The Beginning

Posted 10/01/2015

Progress Has a Price – Do We Know It?

Posted 10/16/2015

Go Forth in Peace, Find Joy

Posted 10/29/2015

Time and the Holidays

Posted 11/15/2015

Responding Without Fear

Posted 11/27/2015

Appreciation Casts Out Fear

Posted 12/15/2015

Give Thanks for Differences

Posted 12/30/2015

Religion Is a Part of the Fabric

Posted 01/14/2016

An Apology for Babies

Posted 01/31/2016

The Illusion of Entitlement

Posted 02/15/2016

Riding the Seesaw of Life

Posted 02/29/2016

Elixir for Joy

Posted 03/16/2016

Excellence and Perfection

Posted 03/31/2016

Firearm Frustration

Posted 04/15/2016

Bathroom Wars and the Age of Doublespeak

Posted 04/30/2016

Negative Spaces?

Posted 05/15/2016

Sharing

Posted 05/31/2016

There Is a Higher Path Than Violence

Posted 06/15/2016

Gender Equality?

Posted 06/30/2016

Owning Choices

Posted 07/14/2016

Double Speak

Posted 07/31/2016

Resilience

Posted 08/14/2016

Hedging Against Uncertainty

Posted 08/30/2016

Transitions

Posted 09/15/2016

The Journey from Earth to Cyberspace

Posted 09/30/2016

The Engine of Change

Posted 10/15/2016

Respecting the Forms of the Divine

Posted 10/31/2016

Finding the Middle

Posted 11/15/2016

Changing Direction: Do We Really Want to Go Here?

Posted 11/30/2016

Holidays of Light

Posted 12/15/2016

Is Money Our Prime Directive?

Posted 12/31/2016

Each Little Brick

Posted 01/16/2017

Emerging from Fear

Posted 01/31/2017

Valentine’s Day Musings

Posted 02/14/2017

Peaceful Ninjas

Posted 02/28/17

Keeping Assumptions Conscious

Posted 03/15/2017

Clarity

Posted 03/31/2017

The Park: a Little Bit of Earth

Posted 04/16/2017

Marching Together for Our Earth: An Old-New Way of Living

Posted 04/30/2017

Inhabiting Cyberspace

Posted 05/15/2017

Creation Moves Forward

Posted 06/01/2017

Happy Trails, Joyful Journeys

Posted 06/15/2017

Beginner’s Mind

Posted 07/01/2017

Communities, Tribes and Villages

Posted 07/15/2017

Valuing Our Differences

Posted 07/30/2017

Pied Piper

Posted 08/15/2017

Reflections on Charity

Posted 08/31/2017

Can We Heal?

Posted 09/15/2017

Peace

Posted 09/30/2017

Let’s Communicate

Posted 10/18/2017

Conscious Change

Posted 10/30/2017

Happy Birthday

Posted 11/16/2017

Assumptions

Posted 12/01/2017

Who Is Santa?

Posted 12/17/2017

The Energy of Transformative Change

Posted 01/01/2018

Confusion Is a Face of Chaos

Posted 01/16/2018

Winter’s Energy

Posted 02/01/2018

The Cycling of Time

Posted 02/16/2018

Gun Wars

Posted 03/01/2018

Cashless? Is That What We Want?

Posted 03/16/2018

The Courage to Hope

Posted 03/31/2018

All Lives Matter

Posted 04/16/2018

Musings on Beauty

Posted 05/01/2018

Stopping to Ponder Ourselves

Posted 05/16/2018

Preserving the Root

Posted 05/31/2018

Where is the Music for Our Times?

Posted 06/15/2021

Responses Are Creative

Posted 07/01/2018

Overwhelmed

Posted 07/19/2018

Keeping Connections Shiny

Posted 08/05/2018

Stories

Posted 08/16/2018

Creating Space for Growth

Posted 09/02/2018

An Insidious Addiction

Posted 09/17/2018

Building a New World

Posted 10/01/2018

Truth

Posted 10/17/2018

Masks

Posted 11/01/2018

Snow Days

Posted 11/16/2018

A Lesson from a Small Event

Posted 12/02/2018

Happy Holidays

Posted 12/17/2018

Happy New Year

Posted 12/31/2018

What Can I Contribute?

Posted 01/17/2019

Ambient Anxiety

Posted 02/01/2019

The Avocado Seed

Posted 02/15/2019

Continuity

Posted 03/04/2019

Reclaiming Our Elections

Posted 03/15/2019

Water is Life

Posted 04/03/2019

The Earth Belongs to All of Us

Posted 04/16/2019

The Gift of Being Alone

Posted 05/01/2019

Convenience and a Caveat

Posted 05/16/2019

An Age of Machines?

Posted 06/03/2019

It Doesn’t Always Make Sense

Posted 06/16/2019

An Apology for Arts

Posted 06/30/2019

Two Worlds and Energy: Manifesting the Positive

Posted on 07/17/2019

Celebrating Birthdays

Posted on 08/01/2019

Pausing to Be

Posted on 08/15/2019

Wrestling with Demons

Posted on 09/01/2019

Relaxing with High Spirit

Posted on 09/16/2019

The Elephant in the Room

Posted on 10/03/2019

The Medicine of Hope

Posted on 10/16/2019

HallOwEEn

Posted on 10/31/2019

True Gratitude

Posted on 11/15/2019

Little Drops of Water, Little Bits of Sound

Posted on 12/02/2019

Let it Go, Let it Be

Posted on 12/19/2019

A New Decade

Posted on 01/02/2020

We Really Do Matter

Posted on 01/17/2020

The Mystery of Paradox

Posted on 01/31/2019

Then Everything Changed

02/15/2020

Fear Not

Posted 0n 02/26/2020

Coronageddon

Posted 03/16/2020

What Next?

Posted 04/01/2020

Grief

Posted 04/15/2020

A Wake-Up Call

Posted 04/30/2020

Creating Our Way Forward

Posted 05/15/2020

Be the Change; the Way of Love

Posted 06/15/2020

A Call to Community

Posted 06/30/2020

Surface and Depth

Posted 07/15/2020

Regaining Our Connection

Posted 08/01/2020

Gratitude and Compassion

Posted 08/16/2020

True Restitution

Posted 09/02/2020

Abuela, Marita, and the Baby Gopher

Posted 09/15/2020

Transition

Posted 10/01/2020

Form and Content

Posted 10/17/2020

Dreaming Our New Reality

Posted 11/12/2020

From Gratitude to Joy

Posted 12/02/2020

Difficult Discerning

Posted 12/18/2020

Time to Act

Posted 01/01/2021

Excuses

Posted 01/16/2021

Focus

Posted 02/02/2021

Nature Teaches Community

Posted 03/01/2021

Staying the Course

Posted 03/15/2021

Everything Counts

Posted 04/01/2021

It is Always Now

Posted 04/15/2021

Epilogue

06/2020

Acknowledgements

There are people I have not mentioned in the content of The Voice from the Back Row: Off the Bandwagon who have been instrumental in the process of writing this book and bringing it to the point of publication. First, I wish to thank all the family and friends who have given me encouragement to continue with the work, which has taken over five years to complete.

Specifically, I give thanks to both my daughter Lisa Sial and my niece Elizabeth Rowe-Mounce, who have consistently read and commented on the chapters as they were written. Their input has been highly valuable. In addition, my friend, colleague, and the author of my foreword, Dr. Aditi Guha, has been a rock of encouragement, often sharing content from the chapters with friends and family. Last, but not least, my thanks go to Joe Murphy, author of Living Full Tilt, who has from the beginning of this book provided unceasing encouragement, reflection, and technical assistance, without which the book would not have come to be. Joe, I have met you only online, but my eternal gratitude for your help.

Diane Drummond

Foreword

I have worked with Diane Drummond for the past thirteen years. Together, we provide quality instruction to children. Diane does an exceptional job of teaching creative writing and language arts.

One of the things I remember as an activity typical of Diane is her attending the People’s Climate March in New York City in September of 2014. Arriving at the Big Apple right before noon on a chartered bus from George Mason University, she was equipped with only an old-fashioned cell phone, good for just making or receiving calls and a printed map of the march route. She joined thousands of demonstrators from across the country, marching across the city in a call to save our Earth. At the conclusion of the march, she navigated back to the bus and returned home late at night. In just one day, she had commuted a total of 12 long hours and marched 50 blocks non-stop. She returned home uplifted and shared that even though the day was exhausting, she would do it again without a second thought. She felt that she had made a small contribution towards a solution for a problem she saw looming. Diane also acknowledged the value of reaching outside of her comfort zone to undertake an endeavor where there was a slight chance of not being able to complete it. I still remember her spoken words, I am glad I made the march, and pray that our Earth may be healed. There is no Planet B.

This story is just one of so many examples of Diane impressing me with her deep commitment to her beliefs, passions, values, and principles. She is one of the few people I have met who truly embodies everything that she says and believes in putting them into action. Little deters her.

Diane began writing The Voice from the Back Row in 2015. The book captures the philosophy that we can all hold different perspectives and beliefs and yet work together for a better world. In this book, she shares with her readers the issues of our times and the processes of personal growth that she has found to be applicable universally. Each chapter stands on its own with a central message; our thoughts are more than just a dream. When we work together the dream can become real.

The Voice from the Back Row; Off the Bandwagon is a book that no one will want to miss. It is a deep commentary on our times; it stays positive while detailing what needs to be done. It offers comfort and hopes to those of us who have been through the chaos of a very tumultuous time in history. It is an enriching factor to the lives of everyone who reads it. The content is timeless and will continue to offer a unique perspective for years to come.

Dr. Aditi Guha

Welcome to The Voice from

The Back Row:

The Beginning

Like many other people last week, I spent time glued to the TV (unusual for me) watching the unfolding progress of Pope Francis’ historical visit to the United States. I wanted to be aware of history being made. The pope’s visit was most impressive, for the extent of its coverage, the warmth of the welcome extended by most to Pope Francis, and for not only the controversial content of his message, but for the eager acceptance of that message by so many. In addition, the pope himself is impressive. He exudes a magnetizing energy often manifested by those who have overcome dark periods in life and managed by strengthening connections to the universal unseen which surrounds us, called myriad names by myriad people. He also sustained a Herculean schedule which would have been beyond many a younger man and remained centered throughout.

In a way, it is fitting that I begin this blog – the start of which has been postponed many times – concurrently with the lift in awareness I sense in people now that this historic event has taken place. I, too, wish to participate in raising awareness, and my contribution, too, may also at times cause controversy. As controversy has always been a frightening thing for me, I must give myself a pat on the back for risking (no, probably inspiring) it. It would be wonderful if people could learn to cooperate and find the center of the continuum between the opposing views that are often argued, but apparently that is not the case. I like to find the center, but in trying to do so, often appear to be siding with one end or the other. Maybe one day, I will understand that better.

I cannot promise just now exactly how this blog will go, nor can I promise an individual response to every comment I get. My goal is to post approximately twice a month, to respond to some comments personally, and to summarize for myself the content of other responses and reply to them via the content of future postings. I also intend to post things that come up for me. I ask for your good wishes and prayers, as this endeavor is in addition to a schedule already full of responsibilities, and as it will also at times be an effort to make sure the baby is not thrown out with the bath water as the perceptual changes now occurring worldwide increase in pace.

To all of us, Peace.

Diane

Progress Has a Price – Do

We Know It?

Almost every day, someone will remark to me that time is moving faster. Sometimes they will say that they have less of it than they used to, but the result is the same. I experience this in my own life, too. It seems there is a constant rush to complete tasks and catch up, and that one is never quite caught up. My precious reading time, my occasional trips to the mountains, even my time to visit friends have all fallen victim to this phenomenon.

What is happening? As of yet, no one has been able to give me a complete explanation. Some say that the (not quite defined) vibes are moving faster; others say it is simply the effect of age, although young people also remark the shrinking of time. Still others think that there is an explanation in quantum physics. The pattern I see is the steady and increasingly rapid onward march of technology.

We humans, with our innately creative minds, have a tendency to eagerly embrace the newest development without first taking the time to assess what will be the probable outcomes of those developments, projected, say, ten or twenty years into the future. We are thus thrust partly aware into living with consequences we had not foreseen and are often quite unprepared to engage. In other words, our minds have leaped ahead, and the rest of our being is doing its best to catch up. Catch up – sounds familiar.

I do believe that all these wonderful things we have created to save us time have, in some indecipherable way, actually robbed us of the time we thought we were going to gain by availing ourselves of their services. For example, when my grandmother was growing up, they swept the carpets or put them on a clothesline and beat them with a paddle. That did take some time. When the vacuum cleaner was invented, the housewife was then predicted to have leisure time resulting from being freed from the task of cleaning the carpets by hand. However, most housewives found themselves busier than ever. The time supposedly freed by the new device, which everyone now had, was taken up by other work that suddenly needed doing. The same situation repeated itself with other new appliances, such as the electric washer and the electric clothes dryer. Newer and faster automobiles seem to produce more places that need to be rushed to.

It is not that these developments are bad; they are certainly awesome in their own right. However, for each of these developments, something is lost, and we do not seem to be aware of what is lost until it is too late to recover it. For example, now that we have highly convenient clothes dryers, we no longer have the scent of the wind and freshly cut grass that used to adorn the clothes we hung on the clothesline. Or now that we have the wonderful GPS to tell us to turn right or left without our thinking much, the skill of map reading is vanishing; in fact, it is difficult to even find any updated maps to read. The use of calculators in schools to do simple math computations has resulted in fewer students who know their number facts, and cashiers who are unable to make change unless a computer tells them what to do. Did we want to lose those skills??? We didn’t ask those questions as we were moving forward.

I think we need to ask those questions and figure out how to include in the relentless march forward the values of what we have lost. It is wonderful to have, for example, an excellent cook to serve us meals. However, if we have lost the skill of knowing our way around a kitchen, we are vulnerable, at the mercy of the cook, or at least of having a cook. As we go forward, who will be the masters – the marvelous devices, or ourselves?

Peace, Diane

Go Forth in Peace, Find Joy

Grandmaster is retiring on Halloween. My martial arts school is closing.

In the grand scheme of things, that is probably not news of great significance. Yet, it does set ripples in motion, and who knows where those ripples might lead.

For those of us who are students at the school, the change is definitely significant. We will need to transfer to other schools, find other schools, or retire ourselves from what has been a part of our lives – for some of us, a large part of our lives. For Grandmaster, the change is immense – he is retiring from what has been most of his life, and now must find another way forward.

So, life changes. What ripples will this change bring? Grandmaster is an old-school teacher. Along with kicks and punches and self-defense, he teaches patience, respect, courage, kindness, persistence, focus, confidence, resilience, responsibility – things the TV portrayals of martial arts lack. The irony is that these qualities, often subsumed under the concept of strong mind, are actually more important to the growth of the martial artist than is the skill of high leaps and fancy forms. That is not to demean the physical skills – they are important, too, for self-defense, and for competition for those so inclined. Even more importantly, they facilitate a balanced and healthy body, which supports a balanced and healthy strong mind.

With Grandmaster’s retirement, those skills are lost to the world in the measure that he gave them. New students will no longer learn from him. Hopefully, enough of us have internalized what he taught so that we can carry them forth into the world, perhaps in ways not directly related to martial arts. Hopefully, they will not be lost, just included in other ways, transmuted but preserved in essence.

Godspeed, Grandmaster, in your retirement. May your way forward be smooth and may we all also find our ways to the next steps in our lives.

Peace, Diane

Time and the Holidays

The holiday season is upon us. I love to watch the children, who, starting with Halloween, both anticipate and revel in the celebrations. I can remember, not only as a child, but also as an adult, looking forward to, preparing for and enjoying the holidays.

Now, it seems that there is an additional component – time. It seems to me that time has increased its space, telescoped, inflated – however one calls it, it seems that more time is needed to accomplish an increasingly greater menu of activity. As most people I know seem to have experienced this, I don’t think I am crazy in noticing.

I remember planning or helping to plan Halloween costumes, carving pumpkins, assembling handmade treats, and admiring the costumes of excited trick-or-treaters. Now, I buy candy (my daughter insists the kids will be quite offended if non-candy treats are offered) and answer the door for two hours. The trick or treaters seem serious, out to get as much candy as possible in the shortest amount of time. No more chatting. No pausing at any door. Yes, it is still Halloween; what has time done?

I remember several days of preparations for Thanksgiving. There were family gatherings, pleasant or not, in which one could travel more or less at leisure. I remember being able to sit at table an hour or more, having real conversation. Now, cooking a Thanksgiving meal is rushed, and the people eating it finish as soon as possible. Travel is rushed – hurry to get ready, see how quickly one can get there, and shorten the visit because one needs to be at work the next day. What has time done? Or is it our devices that lure us away from each other?

I remember sitting at a kitchen table wrapping Christmas gifts. The aim was not to get done as soon as possible, but to make each gift as artistically beautiful as possible. Yes, there was preparation work for Christmas, but not the rush to hurry up and get done as much as possible in a short time. There was time to choose the right gift, to bake cookies and cakes, to attend parties, to work together to prepare. Now, I feel more like the manager of a warehouse trying to fill orders under a deadline. Decorations, if any, need doing in a hurry; the house needs to be cleaned pronto. All these things need to be done as the pace of work life also increases, with deadlines to be met before the holidays. Yes, those things were there before, but not nearly as rushed as now. I am not Scrooge. Holidays are still enjoyable, and the spirit of giving is an important part of life. I just wish there were more time to savor.

Perhaps there is a way to work with time’s increased pace. Perhaps the trend to fragment ourselves into smaller and smaller living units has something to do with it. Many hands, after all, make lighter work. Perhaps we again need the extended family, the tribe, the community. Blessed are they who have successfully managed to support each other and share the joys and the work.

I wish for all the gift of time.

Peace, Diane

Responding Without Fear

It seems that news of the recent horrific attacks in Paris have permeated every corner of the media, touching us all with the grief and distress of the victims and the instability in the world. It is not only in Paris that such things happen; the violence is worldwide. It is that Paris has occupied most of the media.

Although there is a large contingent of people in Europe and North America who are advocating for a sympathetic response to the plight of Syrian refugees, the majority of official response seems to be one of drawing inward and raising defenses. There is as well an eagerness to fight back, to commit troops to what is hoped will be an extinguishing of the men and women who commit violent atrocities. There is not only a hatred of ISIS, but a distrust of and resentment of any Muslim - and perhaps of any stranger.

The reaction is quite understandable. When one is under attack, the inbred, ancient response is to fight or to run away. In our shrinking, interconnected world, it is not really possible to run away. In addition, one wishes to protect one’s own family, one’s own tribe, one’s own culture. The right of self-defense exists. The only problem is that these responses are usually born of fear.

Fear is present not only among the victims of terrorist guerrilla attacks, in the form of, for example, suspending civil rights in the name of collecting intelligence, refusing shelter to refugees in the name of protecting the people from terrorists who might be hiding among them, in the calls to arms and the aggressive political rhetoric that surrounds the issue. It is also present among the attackers. People, with the exception of a few mental deviants such as sociopaths, do not generally desire to murder others for no reason. Most humans, in order to do that, need to first think of their victims as subhuman, as less, and unworthy of life. However, people will kill when they are afraid. The more afraid they are, the more violent the aggressive defenses they enact. The more afraid they are, the more they try to hide their fear or project it onto others.

What could these criminally murderous terrorists possibly be afraid of? They do not appear to be afraid of being caught or of retaliation. They even seem to invite that, to wish to escalate the conflict and atrocity. Even more, they seem to be intent on attracting others, particularly young others, to adopt their viewpoint and join their efforts. They are willing to die for that. Their movement is not a resistance to any one government, or designed to eradicate human sufferings, such as poverty, or the inequality of some people compared to others. Their announced goal is to defeat, to eradicate, Western civilization. Logically, that goal, as horrific as Hitler’s goals of the last century, is a clue to what they fear. It would seem they fear Western civilization itself, perhaps fear that their own culture will be eradicated by the economic and cultural strength of the West.

The fear reaction is no longer a viable reaction. This is increasingly apparent as distances in the world diminish and the pace of time increases. The result of fear, multiplied many times over, is simply mutual destruction. It is the voice of death. And yet, it seems remarkably difficult to disengage from it. What if the other guy does not disengage when we do? Yes, we must remain aware, ready to react promptly and responsibly to imminent threat, just as we are also aware of fire, and protect ourselves against it. We don’t need to simply bare our throats to a predator. What we do need to do is understand, and to tailor our responses from that understanding. It is the first step to response without fear. Perhaps we need to double think responses which give the impression that we are trying to convert the world to Western secular culture, to eliminate others’ ways of life unbidden. Perhaps we need to avoid those actions which would lead to our becoming less than who we are - such as suspending civil rights or closing our doors to innocents who suffer. Perhaps we need to employ our creativity in creating defensive stances that do not involve bombing our attackers out. Perhaps, even, we need to figure out ways to prosper on our planet without destroying it. At the very least, devoting some energy to publicly thinking about these things would be a step in the direction of continued existence on our Earth.

Peace, Diane

Appreciation Casts Out Fear

From all sides, the media has been bombarding us with large and small, seemingly never-ending, incidents of violence. Terrorism, police brutality, random bombings, muggings, rapes, acts of war – the list seems endless. Then come the responses. Let’s go bomb the perpetrators, shoot the cops, fortify ourselves in hideouts, give up our privacies and civil liberties, huddle in fear, vociferously judge each other, kick out innocents because they are other – the responses are hardly less violent. Mankind seems to be intent on labeling others less valuable, less human. What happens then, when the last human stands? Will he or she be any more valuable than the ones who fell?

It seems to me that what is missing is a sense of gratitude for life. That is rather broad, perhaps, so let us simply call it a lack of appreciation for each other. If the knee jerk reaction is How can I possibly appreciate ____________ (fill in the blank), then the observation hits home. In every person, however opprobrious he or she may appear, there is a grain of good. In every person, even those who appear as saints, there is a grain of evil. I use those terms loosely because what is good to one may appear evil to another. But in everyone, there is both. We need to learn to focus on what can be appreciated.

No, we do not need to lie down and let people beat us up or destroy us. We have both the right and duty of self-defense. On the other hand, we need to question how it is self-defense to take the aggression and destruction we have received and carry it forward, aiming it at another, to meet hate with hate and violence with violence, physical or verbal. In so doing, we perpetuate a world culture of fear and death, and it is destroying us; the fear is at the root of the destruction, not the other.

If we could each take a few moments daily to appreciate at least one quality in the human and non-human beings with whom we share life on this planet, and a quality of the planet herself, who is ill and suffering, we will have made a huge step in healing ourselves and our world. Many traditions teach those who learn from them to pray for their enemies. Appreciation is a form of prayer. It is powerful.

In this holiday season, when we celebrate in various ways the return of light, it is appropriate to reflect on and practice what illuminates the dark, the dark of fear and hate that causes us to diminish the humanity of others and hence begin to lose our own. Whatever tradition is yours, please pray the prayer of appreciation.

Peace, Diane

Give Thanks for Differences

There is a great cry nowadays for the equality of people, a needed focus on the ways in which many are exploited and marginalized. It is a needed step in the growth away from greed and violence and judgmental attitudes which purportedly justify the greed and violence. Yet, in spite of the (at least theoretical) embrace of human Equality, we have failed to recognize a simple yet obvious fact. Even though we may all be equal in value, and proceeding to making that goal a reality, we are decidedly not all the same. Women are not the same as men, black is not the same as white or brown, European is not the same as Native American or Japanese, homosexual is not the same as heterosexual, bricklayer is not the same as accountant, even identical twins are not the same. They have differing personalities and sometimes small differences in body, too. In our rush to be equal, we risk losing precious differences in the hurry to be same. Equality is not sameness; it is the equality of value of each of the billions of different people on the Earth. Extended, it is also the equality of value of each life form Earth contains. It is this equality, this non-judgmental stance, which we have veered from, and which needs to be re-established.

Differences are the stuff of which Creation is made. They define each creation, distinguishing it from the undifferentiated eternal energy from which it is created. Without differences we would all be an amorphous mass indistinguishable from that from which we sprang. All would be simply one great conglomeration. There would be no creation. Yes, we are all linked to each other in an underlying oneness. We all spring from the same Source. Yes, within this Creation, we are all joined in categories: all humans, all mammals, all fish, and the like. Yet each of us, within our categories, within our oneness, is distinct. It is the miracle of Creation. We do wrong, in the efforts at justice, to deny our differences. We are each a spark of the Divine (or of Original Energy, if one prefers that wording), and our happiness, growth and well-being depend upon our embracing who we are and the differences which describe us. And it depends on allowing others to embrace their differences as well.

It is sad to see the categories we humans seem impelled to set up, categories which value some people over other people, which deny even basic needs to some, which cause groups to demand the same recognition given to others instead of demanding celebration of their own differences. For example, forbidding all public expression of recognized religion (atheism is also a kind of religion, a deny-the-existence- of-a-God kind of religion), ending in public recognition for only those groups which deny formal religion. Such action results in a generic sameness. Instead, why not be inclusive, allowing non-violent public expression of whichever religion desires to make such expression, including perhaps an atheistic display declaring that there is no God? It is possible to embrace the truth of our own beliefs without attacking the beliefs of others. In this way, we celebrate and respect our differences.

There is a kindergarten lesson that many of us learn. In order to be good, it is not necessary to make someone else bad. That does not mean that we all eat the same lunch, wear the same clothes, speak the same words, color the same way, or are all equally good at math. It does not mean that we want to be the way someone else is. It is recognizing that we all can be good just the way we are. In this new year, let us all recognize that we are not in fact same, that we can all be good. Let us release any envy to be what someone else is, or do what someone else does, and instead celebrate our differences.

Peace, Diane

Religion Is a Part of the Fabric

I have been hearing from those around me – more frequently than I would like – that religion is the cause of most of the troubles of the world, and that if a new and more just society is to evolve, religion must be eliminated (or, more gently, that it must disintegrate and crash by itself). I wonder when I hear this; it seems a skewed position, leaning heavily to one side of a spectrum. It seems like another try at the simplistic solution of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

It is not a secret that religions have their dark sides. The Crusades, for example, or the conquest of Canaan, the enmity between the grandsons of the Prophet, the ferociousness of Zen among the Samurai, are examples from the past. Currently, there are examples from the fundamentalists of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, in particular the anti-Islamic persecutors, the continuing occupation of and unrest in Palestine, and, of course, ISIS. And, in the farther East, the religious frictions among Hindus in India or the persecution of Tibetan Buddhists is perhaps less vocal, but equally present. Plainly, religion is not free of conflict, even violent conflict. This raises two questions. Does its dark side primarily define what a given religion is about? Is any individual among us free of such a dark side, thus able to "cast the first stone’?

I am not a religious scholar, nor have I spent many years studying religions. However, from what I have read, heard, and learned, the basic precepts of ANY of the religions of which I am aware seem pretty consistent, and pretty much the same. Different words may be enunciated, different expressions may be enacted, but the central IDEAS are strikingly similar. And none of them seem to say, Go out and harm and kill those who are different from you. Conversely, there seems to be agreement that God (or Energy, the Force, Primal Origin, or the like) is essentially Love, a love which humans may not fully understand. Those who have grown in the understanding of their religion are equally aware that the prime directive, so to speak, is to love God as God is understood by that religion, and to love one another. Human beings are fallible, but those who are truly religious can be recognized by their unfailing efforts to learn and live up to that prime directive.

Another objection that people make to religion is that it has too many rules, that its major purpose is to control them. This view tends to be prevalent among those who perceive regulation as being punitively imposed from without, and among those who have not yet arrived at individuation, growing into a knowledge of themselves and their inner strengths as well as their limitations. They have a point. There are rules, and often those rules interfere with the desired action of the moment. They seem to limit one’s freedom. The problem is not the rules. The problem is that often people have not managed to think about them long enough to understand the reasons behind the rules, not the political reasons, but the deeper reasons over time, timeless or eternal reasons. For one thing, if there were no guidance or structure to human behavior, there would be the chaos of anarchy as each struggled to get as much of his or her own way as possible and avoid any responsibility towards anyone else. We are experiencing some of that energy in the world now. The paradox is that when one has arrived at a deeper understanding of the rules, one freely chooses them, knowing that they are in design an expression of love, ways that keep oneself and others safe and free to grow and experience the abundance of the universe. In its essence, religion does not deny one the freedom of choice; it actually enforces it. A choice to not choose is still a choice. As humans, the necessity to choose is built into us, and the responsibility for those