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Tuesday, January 27, 2009 TOO BUSY RECORDING THE MOMENT TO NOTICE THE MOMENTI was intrigued
by the news video of Ben Roethlisberger and other Steelers
getting off the plane in Have we become so obsessed with capturing everything on camera and video that we are failing to enjoy or even notice the moment? If so, my hopes of people noticing and discovering their Personal Connector Words to God might just remain that: a hollow hope. We are indeed living in YouTube times, and we've become a cell phone camera nation. Nothing that happens can just happen; it has to be recorded. But recorded for whom? Is it so important to have what is happening to you broadcast to the world, or saved for broadcast at a later date—moreso than experiencing the moment at the time the moment is happening? Have all experiences been relegated in value to what will get the most hits on YouTube? (If you see what gets the most hits on YouTube, you'll soon realize that our experiences are being devalued, not valued, by going the broadcast route.)
When video cameras first came out, I refused to ever take one on a vacation; I still refuse to do so. I didn't want to spend my time videotaping the Assisi church where St. Francis was entombed; I wanted to look at it in the setting sun, drink in its mystery, and feel the energy. I didn't want to spend my few days in England videotaping Stratford-on-Avon, I wanted to walk in wonder among the flowers and thatched roofs of Shakespeare country. I didn't want to videotape Westminister Abbey; I wanted to spend time among the tombs and feel the long-lost history of another age while running my hand over Chaucer's stone. Then I wanted just to sit quietly by myself in the Poet's Corner and connect with the spirits of the many geniuses that I had studied in English lit courses years before.
Taking videos of the Grand Canyon, for me, would have been equivalent to Chevy Chase's experience in the classic movie Vacation---something that spectacular can't be videotaped and it certainly can't be enjoyed in one brief moment. In other words, technology serves its purposes, but it can also be taken to such extremes that it becomes, not a blessing, but a blockage.
I saw a promo for a movie this weekend. I can't remember which movie it was for, but a young woman was bemoaning the fact that years ago when a guy didn't call you back, you went through one rejection. Now, with today's techonology, you undergo multiple rejections: no phone call, no cell phone call, no text message, no instant message, no email, etc. The pain and rejection are amplified. Again, technology overload sometimes is not such a blessing.
I am a big fan of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. His previous book, The Power of Now, I only read after reading A New Earth. (Or perhaps I should say half-read; for some reason I couldn't make it through that one.) In any event, the books emphasize the power of always keeping yourself in the present moment. Tolle tells us that awareness of our surroundings is the key to peace and spiritual growth. However, if we are busy videotaping the people who are videotaping us, how can we even notice our surroundings? Where is the power of now for us if we have our eye glued to a camera lens and our fingers on the buttons?
Want to discover your Personal Connector Word to God? Put down the technology for awhile. Turn off the cell phone. Flip the camera shut. Get still. Look, not with a camera, but with your own eyes at what is happening around you. Notice. See. Think. Feel. React. Be. Saturday, January 17, 2009 OBAMA ON THE GEORGIA 300 TRAINHow about that? There is Obama riding from Philadelphia
to Washington on none other than a Pullman train car called "The Georgia 300"! Talk about your Personal Connector
Word to God coming to you in an unique and wonderful way! Seeing the pictures of that train car with the word "Georgia"
prominently displayed--well, I've been smiling all day! Obama gives me hope, and God, sending me a Georgia right
there on his train car, just multiplied my hopes by about a million!
We won't talk about the Georgia peanut butter that
they've been telling us all day in the news not to eat! LOL
Friday, January 16, 2009 WHY THE MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON IS A MIRACLE THAT WE ALL NEEDI've had to stop watching the coverage of the US Air Flight
that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, with all the occupants surviving. I keep crying. I can't help myself.
When you hear about the heroic pilot, the helpful ferry boat operators, the individual stories of grateful passengers,
the absolute miracle of it all--the tears well up. When you see people of all races and nationalities joining together to
help one another in what could have been an awful tragedy, the tears well up. When you see young and old, black and white,
native-born and immigrant, men and women--all coming together for the common good, the tears well up. Why? Because a miracle
like this reminds us that we are ALL ONE--that deep inside, people ARE GOOD--that there is always HOPE--that there are always
MIRACLES--because there is a DIVINE SOURCE guiding us and helping us.
What are the odds? What are the odds that a plane could be landed the
way it was in freezing water, in metropolitan New York, without hitting buildings, without hitting a boat, without crumbling
to pieces on impact? It came down right where and when it should have, for this miracle to occur. Right where ferries, the
Coast Guard, and first-responders could all converge on it in an instant. Had this happened in another city--let's say, on
one of Pittsburgh's three rivers--I doubt that 155 people would have survived. It just isn't set up that way.
God gave us a miracle just when we all needed one. I say, "we all,"
because the Miracle on the Hudson is a miracle for all of us. It lifts our spirits. It makes us see the common humanity in
all of us. It shows the good in people and the blessings of God. It shows the skill and integrity of people like the pilot,
who one report said literally "gave his shirt off his back" to a cold, wet passenger and also checked the plane twice to make
sure no one was on it before he emerged from the sinking plane himself.
Heroes. There ARE heroes among us. There are MIRACLES. It renews our
faith in both people and God. That is why the Miracle on the Hudson is a miracle we all can benefit from. And don't we need
it now? The economy has self-destructed, people are losing their homes, jobs are scarce--so little in the news to cheer
about. It's a new year, with a new president, and everyone is looking
for some reason to hope. We are looking for change. Well, if it is change you want, look in the eyes of the people who got
off that plane and the people who rushed to their aid. There is a gratefulness, a bond, a hopefulness, a humanity that has
been sorely lacking in this country of late. Look in their eyes, then apply that same gratefulness and hopefulness to your
own life.
Remember the Miracle Rescue of the 9 Quecreek miners right after the
horror of 9-11? Remember how the country was scared and depressed and worried, but when the mine tragedy came to light, we
were all glued to our TV sets for 3 days, praying for people trapped below the earth in Pennsylvania. People we may not have
known, but who symbolically represented ALL OF US. We all felt alone, trapped in the dark after 9-11. The MIRACLE rescue of
the 9 coal miners (which I believe happened in no small part because so much of the world's good thoughts and prayers were
focused on their rescue) lifted our spirits. The Miracle at Quecreek showed us we are all one at a time that America
needed to remember that. The Miracle on the Hudson has just shown us the same thing!
Sunday, January 11, 2009 IF YOU DON'T KNOW IT EXISTS, CAN YOU REALLY NEED IT?I was watching a news reporter on TV the other day who
was at the "new gadgets and electronics" show in Las Vegas. This is where manufacturers exhibit all the latest in innovative
electronic devices--the cutting edge stuff. The reporter made a statement that I found to be not only odd, but emblematic
of what is wrong with American culture right now. He said "here's where you will find things that you didn't even know you
needed until you see them." He said that so matter-of-factly that the irony of the statement was lost on him.
But think about it--how can there be something that you
NEED that you didn't know you NEEDED until you see it? If you didn't know it existed, how could you have a NEED for it? For
me, the news reporter's statement not only didn't make sense, it underscored just how much we've become a consumer-driven,
materialistic society. Granted, some of the devices he showed were "cool," but were they really NEEDED? Hardly.
Coincidentally (or not, for if you've come to understand anything about
me or PCW'S, it's that I believe in synchronicity), I ran into an almost opposite statement a day later. I was rummaging around
in some old storage boxes in my closet and came across an envelope holding relics and documents from my grandparents' distant
past. One item was a War Rationing Book issued in 1945, during World War II. On the back of this booklet of partially-used rationing stamps were instructions that ended with this firm statement:
"Give your whole support to rationing and thereby conserve our vital goods. Be guided by the rule: If you don't
need it, DON'T BUY IT."
Obviously, my grandmother took the instructions seriously, as the 64-year-old
booklet still had quite a few stamps left in it. I wonder, if a similar rationing booklet of stamps were issued this
week to the average American, how many stamps would be left even at the end of one week? Would today's American understand
or abide by a rule that said: If you don't need it, DON'T BUY IT? Or would they be back in line trying
to con another one out of the issuer, or complaining that it wasn't enough, or stealing one from their neighbor? Most of
us today live by the rule voiced by the Las Vegas gadget reporter: You won't know you need it until YOU BUY IT, SO BUY
IT. Oh, and be the first on your block to get it!
Had the majority of Americans remembered the rule stamped on the booklet
by the U.S.Government over six decades ago, they wouldn't be in the credit mess that most of them are in now. Maybe some of
them would still have their homes. And, if the U.S. Government, itself, would have remembered the rule it itself stamped
on the booklet over six decades ago, maybe we wouldn't be trillions of dollars in debt, with banks failing, and the economy
collapsing. It seems like such a simple, common sense rule: If you don't need it, DON'T BUY IT. How did
we forget it? And how ironic that it has made its return for a whole different reason these days!
There's one side effect of following a true spiritual path that isn't
often talked about. You actually do learn, understand and apply this rule to your life: If you don't need it,
don't buy it. And I don't mean just about materialistic things. All things. Ideas, concepts, friends, how you spend
your time, what you buy, where you go........you do things out of NEED for your own growth and spiritual health. If you don't
"need it," you don't buy into it. You no longer do things for superficial reasons. Or to make money. Or to impress people.
The more you attempt to find God, the less you attempt to find material
things. The more you connect with God, the less you "need" from the material world. The more you feel guided by the
Universe, the less driven you are to compete and conquer. The more you become enlightened, the more your needs are fulfilled
by an abundant, forgiving Universe. God provides.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, AS YOU WILLIt's been said that in polite company you should avoid two topics:
religion and politics. If this website and my YouTube videos have shown me anything, it's the truth of that statement.
I've obviously "stirred up the pot" for a lot of people. And I think that's a good thing. It's time we "stirred up" our thinking
on both politics and religion.
The reactions to my concept about the Personal Connector Word to God have
been diverse and interesting. I've gotten some very appreciative responses, some thoughtful ones, and yes, as expected, some
nasty ones. The mean-spirited ones seem to come mostly from young men on YouTube who, since they are in their teens
or early twenties, have all the answers to everything and like to express themselves in what they think are witty
and shocking terms. (I call this the "American Idol" influence. Ridiculing people has become an accepted, admired art
form.) But, I was once a teen and in my twenties, too, and just like them I knew it all then, as well. Or so I thought.
I am reminded of the old saying that "New ideas are first ridiculed. Then they are
violently opposed. Then, they are finally accepted as obvious." These ridiculers don't stay around very long unless they can
get a reaction. And, from me, they won't get one. It was never my purpose, either through my YouTube videos or this website,
to defend my concept, argue my concept, fight for my concept, confront people about their disbelief in my concept, or peddle
my concept. My only goal has always been just to share my concept. Since I found it so amazing and gratifying,
I thought that it might help others who are searching for a new way. Take it or leave it, as you choose.
I know that for people who have been brought up in traditional religion, that my
approach may appear threatening to them, or silly, or even evil. Again, it was never my purpose to get people to abandon
any religious or spiritual beliefs they now hold. I don't expect to overturn centuries of thinking with one video and a website.
Although I do advocate getting rid of "the legs in the attic," I am well aware that there is a lot of "good" in traditional
religion and that some people can't change as easily as perhaps I can. The nice thing about the PCW to God is that it can
"co-exist" with any current religious or spiritual belief you have. You can explore new ways of connecting to God without
abandoning your old ways. If you so choose. Take it or leave it, as you will.
Again, all I am attempting to do is to share an experience that
I have had and how I interpret that experience, with the hope that others may find this something to explore as they struggle
on their own spiritual path. In order to make the concept stand out, I, of course, put it in black and white terms. If I
hadn't, it would get lost among the 646,000 videos on YouTube that come up when you search on "God." Black and white
are rare in any field, let alone in spirituality. There is, of course, only gray.
After all, folks, NONE OF US have the answers, now do we? Not the Christians,
not the Muslims, not the Jews, not the Atheists, not the Buddas, not the Hindus, not the Pope, not Bill Maher, not me and
not you. We are all speculating. We are all seeking. We are all trying to understand who we are, why we are here, and
what, if anything, is our "source." But, if we won't go beyond the traditional thinking of 2,000 years ago, how can
we ever get closer to the answers? That's why I advocate getting rid of "the legs in the attic."
There really is only one truth in all of religion: We don't know anything
for sure.
For me, the best knowledge comes from within ourselves and from our own experiences.
For me, a personal experience with our divine source is about the only thing any one of us can "trust." For me, it came by
way of discovering my Personal Connector Word to God. I know how it makes me feel. I know that, for me, it has brought me
closer to God (divine source, Creator, whatever) than anything in my traditional religious upbringing ever did. For others,
this may not be true. For others, there may be another way.
Again, my only purpose is to share my experience. Take it, or leave
it, as you will.
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