02 Sep

Posted at 10:15h in Observations

“In of the most striking patterns in yesterday’s [2018] election was years in the making: a major partisan divide between white voters with a college degree and those without one. According to exit polls, 61 percent of non-college-educated white voters cast their ballots for Republicans while just 45 percent of college-educated white voters did so. Meanwhile 53 percent of college-educated white voters cast their votes for Democrats compared with 37 percent of those without a degree. The diploma divide, as it’s often called, is...

01 Sep

Posted at 10:40h in Observations

In 1977 on a flight from NYC to Dallas, I sat next to a gentleman busy scribbling on his paperwork. Asked him what he was doing, he replied, "working out which bets I want to make" on some football games or horse races. We continued talking and he said he was a magazine writer but didn't mention his name as he felt I undoubtedly never heard of him. A couple of hours later, I asked him if anyone ever said he looked like Norman Mailer. He said, "Congratulations, it took you a while." I replied: "Someone has to be Norman Mailer and you're it; how is it being Norman Mailer, do you enjoy the role?" He replied: " Terrific role, really enjoying it." Mailer was a novelist, journalist, politician, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor and painter; married six times; had nine children; numerous affairs; stabbed his wife; wrote 11 best-sellers; and cavorted with the glitterati. Yet, the man sitting next to me didn't seem to take his role too seriously. Maybe that's why he was Norman Mailer....

31 Aug

Posted at 10:15h in Observations

Winners are not those successful at their pursuits; the losers not those unsuccessful. The winners are laughing at the outcomes, the losers not....

30 Aug

Posted at 10:14h in Observations

Some years back I viewed a documentary movie about the brutalities of the "Dirty War" in Argentina (1976 - 83) when thousands of people disappeared through state sponsored terrorism. One woman interviewed was a rare survivor. She was asked how she felt about the perpetrators, "you must hate them" suggested the interviewer. "No" she said, "I don't hate them, I fear them." She learned from her experience whom to avoid but as she was essentially happy she was free to move forward without emotional distractions from the past....

28 Aug

Posted at 10:15h in Images

Three years ago I was in LA in a shop that sells clothing and accessories. There I found the pendant in the photo above. Store manager said he had found it at a flea market and that it was a “Navajo star.”  While I’m not a jewellery kind of guy, the pendant was sufficiently engaging that I purchased it. Researching after, I couldn’t find a Navajo star like it or another  similar star. But that was of no matter as I liked the pendant as it was, regardless of any associations or stories that often accompany artworks. In time the pendant revealed itself as a symbol of pantheism, the view that everything is a manifestation of God. The pendant depicts two stars with a common center. The shorter star ends in points and the longer one ends in heads. The shorter star represents energy/light. The longer star represents matter. Energy and matter have a common center as they are equivalent (E=M*C*C). The common center is God; hence, a pantheist pendant The heads at the endpoints of the longer star represent consciousness; five heads, five senses. The longer star also appears like a "spread eagle" cheerleader pose, a celebratory pose. When we realize we are one with everything and one with God, we experience the world via our senses, not our mind. That's something about which to celebrate. I’ve made 25 copies of the pendant and give them out to friends who would wear them. Three years later, I still have 15. I suspect none would be left had  I offered them for sale.  ...

27 Aug

Posted at 10:15h in Observations

God is the knowledge that we are all connected. Religion is about rules which connect its adherents and exclude others; the antithesis of God....

24 Aug

Posted at 02:22h in Observations

"The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one." God is that which is within and unfolds into the infinite manifestations of the universe, the without. We are never lacking (never without) as what's without is always within....

22 Aug

Posted at 00:02h in Observations

Anticipating a problem lessens its consequences. When we envision problematic events, we can adjust accordingly and mitigate their consequences. As problems initially unfold slowly and then suddenly, when we identify problems unfolding slowly we can to some extent get out of their harm's way before they unfold suddenly. However, many of us fear envisioning potential problems as doing so makes us anxious; thus we suffer the consequences of our blinding fears....