The Good, the Bad and the Confusing

We're learning about "Morality" vocabulary in class.  I've got this vocabulary text book, and it tells me what words I'm supposed to teach them.  I always end up teaching them more than they asked for, but as my wise friend once said, "You've got to spend your time somehow."

So we discussed our religions or lack thereof and how they affect our "moral choices" in life.  Most people identified themselves as Christian, Buddhist or Muslim, with only four people saying they had no religion.  When questioned further, the vast majority of them admitted they weren't technically "practicing" their religion carefully.  Some even contradicted their supposed religion when they stated their actual beliefs about how to act in life.

When someone stated their religion, I asked them if there was anything they could think of that their religion has guided them to, as in some choice they've had to make in life.  Most people brought up something that most religions and societies teach, such as loving other people, or not drinking too much, and things like that.  Several Japanese students who said they weren't associated with any religion said that they learned it all in a special "ethics" class from the public school, or in one case, a Buddhist school and then a Christian school, although neither stuck. 

Near the completion of class I brought up 10 "ethical" issues that I hear about in the chatter of American society.  I did not choose them based on whether or not I thought they should be moral issues, but more based on what I frequently hear argued about during political campaigns, as complaints from religions, or by friends who support various popular causes to improve the world in the best way they see fit. 

I took an anonymous survey where I brought up the question and then had them write on a numbered sheet of paper if they thought it was "good", "bad" or "Okay/I don't care".

My class of 20-30 something year old's from various cultures ranked these "ethical questions" from worst to not so bad as follows:

From Worst to Best:

1.  Eating so much that you become obese

2.  Driving over the speed limit

3.  Buying clothing from companies that use sweatshop child labor

4.  Abortion

5.  Drinking to excess

6.  Smoking marijuana

7.  Tie:  Gay marriage and Watching pornography

9.  Tie (with zero "Bad" votes):  Eating Meat and Masturbating


The top 3 in the list were the only ones that received significant amounts of "bad" votes.  I wonder if I had done a sufficient job clarifying the "moral" nature of the issue ("Is it morally wrong to do this?") versus the personal health/best interest side of the issue ("Well yeah, of course it's not good to eat so much you become obese").

Barely anyone thought gay marriage or watching pornography was wrong, although a few of the 20 votes cast did think so.  Most votes on all issues tended to be "okay/don't care".

The most "good" votes came for eating meat (and no "bad" votes, interestingly), with gay marriage second.

Once again, it was an anonymous survey, and they were given the issues one at a time, as opposed to ranking them.  Also, they were all international students, and none of them Americans, as clearly evidenced by their selections of "eating too much" and "speeding" as the gravest of sins.

Remember the woman who lived upstairs from me and had the bipolar boyfriend I wrote about in "Shine Your Light"?  Well, now I am convinced that she can be equally bipolar and manipulative and nasty.  Also, when I got home from class, I found out she moved out today after being evicted. 

I feel a little bad, because I don't like to see anyone down on their luck, and I remember how long I was without a place to be and how much that can bear on your psyche.  That being said, she really stressed out most of the people in the house, and especially me since I lived the floor below and could hear the stomping and yelling very clearly.  Even so, I never made a formal complaint to the manager or landlord, so I know that it was the house's will, not mine, that decided her fate.

I remember when I first moved in I had no furniture, not even a bed.  All I had was my camping mat, sleeping bag and small camping pillow.  My roommate, who had also recently moved in, had so many things that she spread them all over the common space in the house, and you had to be very careful when walking through the hallway not to bump into her framed paintings and such.  Many of them were there for over a month.

Among them were two golden Buddha faces.  After a few weeks I decided that the Buddha looked lonely, and I wasn't even sure if they were hers or someone else who had moved out and left them there, so I put one in my room to remind me that the "Buddha" was everywhere.  I am not a Buddhist, but I mostly understand the core ideas as they could be applied to my experience with life.  I liked the idea that even though I had very little materially at the time, I still had worlds inside me, and even though I lived in an ugly apartment near the freeway, the future contained all the possibilities I wanted it to if I was willing to see the Buddha beauty all around me.

I had it in my room for weeks, and then one day I decided to take an Egyptian hieroglyphic one which I kept bumping into and appreciate it in my room since it wasn't getting any attention in the hallway.  Within five minutes I got a knock on my door from my roommate, hysterically complaining that she'd been robbed.  When I asked what it was about and found out, I opened the door to show her, and explained the misunderstanding.  She was relieved instead of angry.  I really did think they had been left behind by some other tenant at that point, because who would be so audacious as to fill the hallways of a house with ten people with a stream of their belongings for over a month?  I gave both back quickly, and even made a smiling little speech/comment about not needing to own the Buddha because it was everywhere, but she kept going on and on about how valuable it was and wanting to sell it.  Her friend was with her at the time.  She was a nice woman I talked to in the kitchen from time to time, and when she saw how I had basically nothing in my room, she tried to convince my roommate to let it go, but she was very hung up on the issue.  She wasn't angry at me, but she wanted her Buddha back.

Today, after they moved out her stuff, I walked into her room.  There were still several paintings hanging on the wall.  I immediately noticed the golden Buddha, amongst many other fancy possessions.  Just last week I'd had to break up a fight between her and her boyfriend over him supposedly breaking her TV, and had to stop her from screaming "it doesn't get ANY worse than this!"  To be fair, it was exclaimed in the same rant about getting evicted.  But she was really mad about that TV.

10 days ago I found a huge TV on the street with a "free" sign and carried it down the hill to my room.  It must have weighed 70 or 80 lbs., with barely any grips.  I don't have a TV hook-up, but I thought I might connect it to my laptop.  Unfortunately the inputs were inoperative, so I'd done all of that work for nothing.  I still have the TV, but I use it as the back rest for my chair.  I also found the chair on the street.  It reclines too far though, so it's good to have the TV on my coffee table behind it so I can lean on it and sit up straight.

Yesterday my laptop touch pad for navigation froze up, and I thought I was going to have to send it back to get it fixed and wait for weeks and use library computers until then.  I called my computer techie cousin to get the run down, and he said to start it in safe mode, which I knew how to do, but that didn't work.  I still couldn't move the arrow or click on anything.  So I just let it go and did something else.  Then this morning I tried the old "take the battery out and put it back in again" trick and started it in safe mode with networking as opposed to just safe mode, and one of the two fixed the problem.  If my laptop died I'd be mad, but I've already had one burglarized, back in Brooklyn, so I know that what really matters is I'm okay.

A few weeks ago I found out from one mechanic in the city that my car needed repairs totalling $2500, and the inspection was expiring.  I couldn't afford that, so it looked like I was going to have to give up my car and, therefore, my canoe.  I was patient and eventually found a mechanic out of town who charged me $575 for everything, and now I have a car again.

I wouldn't want to get evicted, because it's hard without a home.  And I wouldn't want certain of my possessions to be gone forever either.  But what's truly important in this world is what you have inside of you and how that connects you to the world around you.

I've learned how to live without close family or friends around me for almost a year, but without the excitement of knowing I'm in a foreign country.  I'm just another American with a job and an apartment.  When I see my family again, it will mean a lot more to me than anything I could possess materially.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no ascetic.  I'll always love the taste of food, assured quick access to information technology, and a vehicle that can move me to a beautiful place to be.  But that's only one of many paths to being happy.

What really matters to me is to be happy and feel free.

I keep no balance sheet as to whether this happiness and freedom is made possible by something materially or spiritually.

It's something I sense inside of me

Peace Time

Dear Whoever Reads This,


Life is good.  How is yours?

Class is going well.  We've been on three field trips in two weeks: The Modern Art Museum, the San Francisco Zoo, and a pot luck BBQ atop one of my students' downtown apartment buildings.  I can't say I don't enjoy the executive powers available to me.  Today we watched a movie about World War II, and how America got rescued from the Great Depression by being drawn into the greatest fight of its life.  It won due to all of the detailed divine destinies of all the diminutive deities who were merely represented by figures in lists of captured and casualties.  Or because it just is, if you're into that sort of explanation.  But on a higher level of perspective, with slightly more detail, one could say that America's quick productivity and ingenuity helped it jump into a fight that had been going on long before it woke up to it.  The fact it had stayed out of it for so long owed to its advantageous position and strength when it did begin.  Ultimately, it won because of the worst weapon in the world being created by a man who once tried to poison his college professor and then quoted the Hindu Bhagavad Gita after the first successful test of the bomb.  This bomb was enabled by the brilliant equations of one of its smartest citizens, and it strangely prevented any kind of third full-scale world war from ever being consummated.  The only country it was used on, Japan, although initially devastated, would go on to become one of most advanced and rich societies on earth, and never go to war again.

After the video I told a plain language story/quick summary of the causes of World War I and World War II.  It was interesting to note how little people knew about it even though it was the biggest war on earth that involved just about every country, whether or not they wanted it.

Now we're in San Francisco, and there is no unified world war, although life is a battle every day.  The people here mostly appear to be well, if you were at all curious about how people on the west coast of the United States are doing.  After a slow period of selectively choosing my hangout's and balancing it out with solitary readjustment to America/living indoors/new city/new coast/western society/being stationary while writing a book, organizing my pictures and continuing to learn, I've finally found myself spending more time with people than not.  Last weekend I didn't get home from parties/group hangout's until after 10 pm three nights in a row starting Thursday, and then I used the rest of my time to write.

I also got my car fixed recently, which is always good.  I'm going on a great adventure soon.  Whether or not it's before I go to Mexico for my cousin's wedding has yet to be decided.

The only time I went to Mexico before this, I took dozens of long bus rides and a dozen hitchhiked rides south and then west across America in the winter, up to San Francisco, all so I could "fly down to Mexico-o-o" and "catch my plane right on time and let my honesty shine" or whatever it was that Simon & Garfunkel were singing in "The Only Living Boy in New York".

Speaking of which, I am flying to Mexico one year to the day that I left my home state, New York.  I think the first night is my younger cousin's bachelor party.  I spent my first full day in America in April 2012 at my older cousin's bachelor party.  All I had to do after that to get back to Mexico was drive all over the northern US in the summer and find a way to live in San Francisco.  Although this time, I had no idea I was going to Mexico.

My first day in California, when I crossed the northern border from Oregon so I could camp in Redwood National Park, I went to the cloudy Pacific Ocean and either called or got a call from my cousin Dan.  He asked me if I would be in his wedding party in May, and I said that was a great way of telling me he was getting married, which I think he actually had forgotten to officially mention since it had been rumored for a while.

Besides that, I stood in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles today for ninety minutes, and when I got to the counter I found that the important document in my bag was somewhere other than there.  At least I got info about everything I need to do.

Also, my laptop touch pad mouse stopped working, which is annoying, but fixable.

But it's not World War II, so what can I do?

Joy

            I am so happy and amazed to be alive during the entire experience.  It’s almost as if the entire world as I knew it not only transformed forever into something completely new with infinite possibilities, but that it was actually realer and made more sense than ever before, despite the fact that I’d just been confronted with more mystery and insanity than ever before.  It all just naturally flowed and connected and made sense somehow.  Life, transformation, evolution, being on a planet in space with a history of human love and connection and learning and understanding and kindness and bravery and hunger and lust and thirst and imagination and creativity and compassion and effort and expression and complex reasoning and arrangement on levels both human and above human, arranging humans in mysterious and magical ways very similar to ways humans arrange their artistic plays at poetry, and the relationship of words to the world in the most pressing and imminent and obvious sense, and that (11:11) these new emotions come perfectly timed with such glorious, outstanding, awesome, intense and beautiful powerful music only further sheds light on my mind that I am experiencing the best of time.  I am the world.  I (10,000) am able to imagine and play anything my heart desires today.

            I am a human.  I am evolved from other humans, who are evolved from life, which is here in the first place and is the most mind-boggling fact of all existence.  I am no longer a student in a system at a university.  I am a human in a system in a universe.  The rules are all new and better now.  This is beyond the word "transformation".  Enjoy creation.  Love your world and your imagination and your ears and your nose and your tongue and your toes and your fingers and heart and your privates, especially when they grow, and enjoy life as it flows, wherever it goes.   Where?  Who knows?

Spirit Adapting

 "Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo...

According to Wikipedia: 

Lemurs have evolved to cope with an extremely seasonal environment and their adaptations give them a level of diversity that rivals that of all other primate groups.

 The word "lemur" can be translated as "spirits"

 

"I do believe it

I do believe it's true..."

 

-"At the Zoo"

Simon & Garfunkel

I Learned Something Today

I went to school on South Park Street.

One of the only shows I used to keep up with on TV (or the internet) was South Park, but they haven't had an episode for ages, and won't until September for some reason, which is unprecedented.  They must be very busy or very tired from being so busy.

When they started out, they ended almost every episode by saying, "I learned something today" and then giving a speech.

I learned something today:

If you want to live a really long time, you should move to Okinawa, Sardinia or Loma Linda, California.  Or, at the least, you should follow some of their healthy habits:

-have lasting relationships with a network of people you care about
-have some sort of purposeful existence that drives you
-eat vegetables and fruits
-drink plenty of water
-exercise and work hard
-living in a place with nice weather can help
-consuming fewer calories means a longer life

If this were South Park, they'd make that funny somehow, but that's not my specialty.  Instead, for now, I can do my best to live a long life, instead of laugh about it all the time.

Then again, laughing a lot is very healthy for you.  Thank you, laugh makers.

I learned something else today too.

Tomorrow we're going to the zoo.

Today I learned they have a Lemur Cafe there!

I laughed when I heard that.

You Can Do It

Three years ago I went on the most incredible adventure of my life, and in a way it has continued until this day.

It began with a flight from New York City to India.

My mother, sister, and soon to be brother went to the airport with me.  My father had to work, but he'd already given me a great gift for my journey, the Iroquois nation's Words Before All Else: Thanksgiving Address.  He said it summarized his beliefs better than any other group had stated before.  It thanks the people, the waters, the sun, the moon, the creator, the enlightened teachers, the animals, the plants, and everything they believe deserves thanking for the giving they've done before we do the taking from them.  It says this about where we live, the Earth:

The Earth Mother

We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life.

She supports our feet as we walk about upon her.

It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time.

To our Mother, we send greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

Before my mother said good bye to me, she gave me two envelopes.  She said, "Open one of them when you get on the plane, and the other one at Christmas."  It was December 3, and I was going to miss my first Christmas ever.  I planned to be in India for two months of unplanned exploring before flying to Thailand and not coming back until my sister's wedding July 3.  I didn't know that I was going to travel through ten countries for seven straight months.  I didn't know I was going to do two long journeys across the United States and live in Japan for a year after that either.  I had no idea just how much individual development and how many challenges were ahead of me.

When I got on the plane, I had about three hours to wait on the tarmac because of delays.  During the suspense I opened the first envelope.

There was a card with a quote from Winnie the Pooh, everyone's favorite bear from childhood:

Always remember:

"You're braver than you believe, 

and stronger than you seem,

and smarter than you think."

If your birth mom hasn't told you that lately

your Earth mom is telling you now

The Universe Smiles

I wrote the following in mid-February

and many others the same day

Here's one:

            Please imagine that the word "religion" means nothing to you right now, and you're starting with a clean slate of knowledge and imagination, openly perceptive and possibly receptive to a new clue for you.

 

            Religion means “rebinding”.  Think of it as connecting to something larger than yourself.  You become one with the universe.  That’s all that religion is about, no matter which religion you’re talking about or which different words they seem to be using to convey that, or, sadly, distort that.

            The problem with most religious statues is that they are always so serious and stern, or even miserable and sad.  Thus, if they are rebinding to the universe, then that is what the universe is about.  Mostly you see that in the west.  In the east you tend to see this neutral look of contentment on most statues, usually of the Buddha, indicating that he’s totally got it but he can’t be bothered to get excited about it because then he might be sad later and ruin his balance.  His eyes are rarely open.

            That brings us to the Laughing Buddha, the best religious statue in the world.  The reason is easy: he’s smiling!  And not just smiling, he’s really smiling.  He is one happy camper.  He smiles wide with a dot to indicate his third eye, and it radiates from him centrifugally out into the universe with which he is united.

            If there is an arc to the universe, it is a smile.  We start happy, get dragged down, and then raise ourselves back up again.

            Share in the one smile.