{"id":56900,"date":"2012-05-12T09:09:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-12T13:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=56900"},"modified":"2012-05-12T09:45:30","modified_gmt":"2012-05-12T13:45:30","slug":"choosing-another-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/choosing-another-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Another Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Don’t you love it when the gears begin to turn and you know you’re going somewhere? That’s in the air now, this sense that we’re picking up speed. Perhaps this feeling of relief is a response to Mars in direct motion, finally moving us along but still in shadow phase so we’re not zooming ahead like a bullet train, unable to process much but watering eyes and rushing wind. We’re more like riders looking out the window now, connecting the dots on the landscape, accessing where we are and how the topography is changing. And it’s more than Mars, of course. It’s the currents of our major energy changes, our pending eclipses and aspects, pulling us forward into the future, having whittled away some of the lethargy and illogic we were stewing in for so long: frogs slowly simmering to a boil.<\/p>\n

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It feels like a second wind (or ninth or tenth). Instead of wincing at the prospect, I must now confess a renewed curiosity about what headlines each new day will bring. There’s still a lot of delusion out there, people saying astoundingly cynical things they’re sure the faithful will believe, but there are also signs of sanity everywhere you look, some surprising. Take FOX Newscaster Shepard Smith applauding Obama’s support for gay marriage. Shep suggested that the POTUS was now on the “right side of the 21st century,” which earned the immediate ire of always-vigilant GOP overseer Limbaugh. Rush demanded to know in which state Shep thought such an opinion might win an election. Trumpeted the Bloviating One, “It’s still up to the hicks and the hay seeds …”<\/p>\n

A clever Dem would commit that description to memory, just in case the radical right wasn’t sure what Rush thinks about them. Still, who would have thought such a moment might play out on FOX television? Or this report<\/a> of Alan Colmes taking down Joel Arends, the Swiftboaters’ front-man on FOX radio who had accused the Prez of “spiking the football” on Osama bin Laden. Arends, who successfully muddied the reputation of war heroes Max Cleland and John Kerry ten years ago, did a less than credible job of pretending to represent miffed Navy SEALS critical of Obama’s actions (none available for comment.) It’s all too evident that Rupert Murdoch is preoccupied elsewhere.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Oh yes, sanity is poking its head up, but ‘crazy’ is still alive and well. We saw it peek out behind the polling numbers that took down long-time bipartisan Republican Richard Lugar this week. Another reasonable soul bites the dust, but — as some argue, and effectively — it shouldn’t take TNT to blast some of the old timers out of the Congress. Unfortunately, Dick was replaced by a wing-nut whose idea of bipartisanship includes every citizen giving back their Social Security number while applying for a gun permit, or, as this is now acknowledged, the “new Republican orthodoxy.” There is no bipartisanship left to the GOP. They can’t move much farther right without seceding, which — in their minds, at least — looks to be an attractive possibility. Crazy!<\/p>\n

And ‘crazy’ is just fine and dandy in the House of Representatives that approved another of Paul Ryan’s austerity budgets, throwing bones to the dogs of war at the Pentagon but cutting food and medical aid to American families, while giving the ever-ravenous 1% all the cash they want. Paul recently argued that his (well-documented) devotion to Ayn Rand and her political principals was simply an early admiration, now cooled. He also drew the ire of Catholic Bishops with his uncharitable budget proposal, suggesting that Jesus would approve turning the deadbeats and their children out of the fold and making them find jobs. Accountability for the poor but not the rich. Tough love, emphasis on the tough.<\/p>\n

Ryan’s rhetoric includes zealous objection that the “makers” are forced by government to care for the “takers,” which makes me want to go all Charlton Heston Biblical and proclaim, “And by their lack of compassion, shall ye know them!” The faithful wouldn’t notice, of course, because you have to have some experience of compassion to understand how necessary it is, and as yet, the faithful respond better to fear than to kindness. Ryan recently held forth on this topic with Glenn Beck, who was so taken with Ryan’s full-throated vision of a Randian future that Beck gushed out an unflinching, “I love you!” Evidently feeling no man-on-man remorse, he then agreed with Ryan that “progressivism is a cancer” infecting the nation.<\/p>\n

Seriously? I won’t speculate on how riddled with paranoid delusion Glenn’s brain is, but Ryan is just another of those “hollow men” who talk Gawd while sucking up guns and butter, a con man to whose followers Will Pitt<\/a> had this to say about the pastor who advised worshipers to beat the gay out of their children: “… I have all the sympathy in the world for those who have been scammed, conned and taken advantage of, but I am all the way done with living in a country run by the professionally duped.”<\/p>\n

Amen, brother! Those who haven’t figured out what’s objectionable about the guys who wear white sheets and burn crosses under a star-spangled sky calling themselves Christian shouldn’t be allowed to lead this nation’s politics. This same reference to Beck reminded me of the summer of 2010 when he went ballistic on FOX with arcane projections and apocalyptic visions. That was the summer when Michele Bachmann put her own version of crazy on the line, when the remaining handful of Pub moderates gave up attempts to herd the crazies, and the Tea Party took shape in front of our very eyes. That was the same summer I began my daily mantra of, “If you see crazy coming, cross the street.” If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because I wrote of it then and it’s still true.<\/p>\n

I think of this as my early-warning-system, my pro-active wrist-snap of a reminder, meant to keep me awake and aware of who has gone zombie-like and who is still engaging with some mental acumen. It works beautifully when reality is under siege, hence, all day, every day for the last decade and more. Such a method was particularly necessary after Dubby, who we thought mad as a hatter but who turned out to be even more mundanely evil and less impressively impaired than we’d imagined. We should have known it was his followers that put us in jeopardy when they all put pictures of George with a bright halo photo-shopped around his head on their living room walls (at least Rush’s hicks and hayseeds.)<\/p>\n

I put something else on mine. “If you see crazy,” is a short version of another bit of potent insight, a longer description of how we make choices on our path. When I was doing readings and charts, as well as holding ACIM groups in my home, I had a poster framed on my living room wall. Everyone who stopped to read it stopped to read it again and then write it down. It follows:<\/p>\n

There’s A Hole In My Sidewalk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Portia Nelson<\/p>\n

I.<\/p>\n

I walk down the street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

I fall in.<\/p>\n

I am lost … I am helpless.<\/p>\n

It isn’t my fault.<\/p>\n

It takes forever to find a way out.<\/p>\n

II.<\/p>\n

I walk down the same street.<\/p>\n

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

I pretend I don’t see it.<\/p>\n

I fall in again.<\/p>\n

I can’t believe I am in this same place.<\/p>\n

But it isn’t my fault.<\/p>\n

It still takes a long time to get out.<\/p>\n

III.<\/p>\n

I walk down the same street.<\/p>\n

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

I see it is there.<\/p>\n

I still fall in … it’s a habit … but,<\/p>\n

my eyes are open,<\/p>\n

I know where I am.<\/p>\n

It is my fault.<\/p>\n

I get out immediately.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/p>\n

I walk down the same street.<\/p>\n

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

I walk around it.<\/p>\n

V.<\/p>\n

I walk down another street.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a “wow,” huh? Most often, people relate to this information in terms of relationship. That’s certainly an obvious context, but my take is that we are in relationship with every one and every thing, so it’s true on every level. The hole in the sidewalk speaks to our dependencies, our addictions, our fears and our self-image. The hole can be recurring patterns in our work experience, our financial habits or our politics. We can stay in step II for decades; in fact, we can LIVE there if we want, and millions of people around the globe would take the meaning. This IS the human condition, this IS the choice between remaining in what is familiar and dysfunctional or breaking free from the bonds that keep us shackled.<\/p>\n

We have obviously begun a long conversation here, one I’d like to explore at length next week. Meanwhile, just think about the hole in the sidewalk and how often we fall in, how much sorrow and harm to self and others we expend in the process. Think about how things might change if we knew crazy was coming but we had a choice not to dance with it, if we knew that the old familiar hole was just a step away, ready to suck us down again but we didn’t have to jump in. We have the power to stand back a bit, witness our own life and gain the ability to break the hold pattern and habit has over us. The first step is to know we can.<\/p>\n

When we can look around us with awareness, free from a belief that there is nothing more, it will dawn on us that we have choices, that we can have a new start. We can not only clearly see those who are stuck inside the box of victimhood and a hopeless looping of habitual behavior, but how to think outside of it. When we cross to walk down another street, we’re free.<\/p>\n

We are cyclical people. Astrology works to help us decode our time and space because we have learned to identify cycles and anticipate their influence. It works to identify our inner-space because it speaks to our patterns, our karma and our dharma, our shadow side as well as the lighted. Many of us have already broken old patterns, chosen a path of self-awareness and authority. We are coming into our collective power and we need to use it wisely, concentrating our energy on achieving what lifts us all and helping others to find their feet. We cannot come into wisdom if we leave our brothers and sisters behind.<\/p>\n

Each positive happening resonates powerful ripples in our collective pond. Look for things to celebrate. Ignore what isn’t loving and replace it with your own good thoughts and activity. Make the choices that will keep your feet firmly on your path. Many of us were motivated in recent years by anger, pressing us forward as a response to outrage and frustration, but anger is a catalyst, not a life path. Perpetual anger distorts our judgment. It’s yet another hole in which we can find temporary comfort, but no future for ourselves or our world. No, it’s not anger that will blast us out of pattern. It’s self-love, self-understanding, compassion and grace.<\/p>\n

It’s Mother’s Day weekend, and not all of us had wonderful mothers. If we did, let’s spread echoes of that nurture around, generous with our affection and appreciation. If we didn’t, then let’s begin to discover that internal-Mother within ourselves, reflected by those around us willing to offer an open hand. Remember, it is a great truth that positive change and dynamic choice are to be found on the path of willingness, not in the hole of self-pity and denial.<\/p>\n

Blessed Mother’s Day to all of us who choose love, then — and for those who haven’t, may you find the love that’s hidden in plain sight everywhere you look. This much is true: crazy is always coming and there is always a hole in the sidewalk, looming, waiting for us to stumble. So a message on this weekend that Goddess would approve? Beloved child of the Universe, I hope you’re ready to cross the street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves Don’t you love it when the gears begin to turn and you know you’re going somewhere? That’s in the air now, this sense that we’re picking up speed. Perhaps this feeling of relief is a response to Mars in direct motion, finally moving us along but still in shadow … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}