[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Wow! Britney Spears! | John Rachel
Like Afghanistan. But doesn’t Britney Spears
make you darn proud to be an American!
Hope fuels boundless optimism and lays the groundwork for deep and ruinous cynicism.
I’ve written quite a bit about hope. How not that long ago it created for a certain political candidate the greatest groundswell of Messianic hysteria in modern history. How it became the oxygen for a nation suffocating from the catastrophic mishandling of the 9/11 attacks, the wanton military aggression, the gagging incompetence of eight years rule by a cabal of war-crazed lunatics.
Hope! I call it Vitamin H.
Actually, I just made that up. Sounds good though.
“Take your vitamins, people! Don’t forget your Vitamin H.” If you get the recommended daily intake of Vitamin H, you’ll get through each day with a smile, find yourself buoyed with a general giddiness, approach every encounter, person and situation with a naive trust that’ll keep your blood pressure low and your gullibility off the charts.
Ignorance is bliss! Let’s party!
Hope is a ticket to Paradise.
Admittedly . . . so far it hasn’t done very much to prevent malaise, ennui, confusion, paranoia, short and long term memory loss, cognitive dissonance, alienation, disconnect, cerebral dyspepsia, disorientation, and hegemony of the lizard brain.
But we can keep on hoping!
Which brings me to the splendid tidings of this particular article. Yes, good people, if you were looking for a real boost, something to skyrocket your sagging expectations into the dreamy upper reaches of the gladosphere, you’ve come to the right place.
First, to appreciate the magnitude of this announcement, we need to review.
When peaceniks were all mopey about the destruction of Yugoslavia via a massive, illegal bombing campaign, we had this WONDERFUL SONG to turn those frowns upside down!
When young and old, rich and poor, were reeling from the dotcom stock market crash and subsequent meltdown of the economy, the Oxycontin back then was this appropriately titled MUSICAL INTUBATOR.
Granted, seeing the Twin Towers come down and the U.S. turned on its head in an orgy of fear and grief was a bummer. But it was only two weeks later THIS HEAVY BREATHER was released to remind people what was really important in life!
As a delightful soundtrack to the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians and bombing Baghdad Iraq back to the Stone Age, who couldn’t help but feel the awesome “boom boom” of THIS DANCE FLOOR M.O.A.B. Bumping and grinding has never felt so patriotic!
So what’s the lesson here?
It comes down to this. When trying to process the next installment of doom and gloom by the pernicious 24/7 lethal drip of MSM drivel, when trying to sort out and deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, endless wars, a collapsing economy, oppression, genocide, critical race theory, wokeness, wealth inequality, corporate tyranny, technocracy, the Great Reset, cyber warfare, biological warfare, info warfare, masks, vaccines, fake news, deep fakes, the Deep State, bad TV, bad movies, and the screechy hyperventilating of our political class, for our own sanity — for our survival as a species — we must break with the old habits, open our minds, and turn our blurred gazes to a new source of enlightenment and hope!
Hear me now! When confronted with the spirit-killing sludge of endless crises, don’t look to Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Robert Reich, Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, Tucker Carlson, Jimmy Dore, or Joe Rogan. Don’t even listen to me, except of course for this one last incredibly brilliant piece that you’re reading right now. Because let’s face it. What we self-appointed mouthpieces — myself included — vomit up for mass consumption is a worthless pile of pitiful, mostly pessimistic, self-promoting blather.
No, dear friends and comrades: WE MUST TURN TO SOMEONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY SAVE US!
Someone who knows the real price of freedom. Someone with some skin in the game!
After years and years of struggle and legal battles, this courageous lady has finally escaped the court-ordered lockdown which imposed on her the random tyranny of a bunch of old white men, and kneecapped her brilliant career. We should all be very grateful that her nightmare is over. Britney Spears is free!
Remember . . . no man is an island. This is about us individually and as a nation.
Now we can get serious now about building back better.
And making America great again!
Yeah, you heard it here.
Britney is back!
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Sunday, September 12, 2021
Life In Japan: Special Purpose Temples & Shrines
As there are churches everywhere in the U.S., there are temples and shrines everywhere here in Japan. The really fascinating ones are the special purpose ones.
There are shrines and temples devoted to the usual things: money, health, happiness, long life, good marriage. There are ones dedicated to uniting two people in love or in friendship. Interestingly, there’s at least one shrine for breaking up! This could be a lover, a friend, an employer. At all of these temples and shrines, the donation box beckons you for your coins. There is often the option to light a candle or buy incense. The money apparently is chalked up as payment for “services rendered” by whoever or whatever is fulfilling your request.
I’ll confess, being raised Catholic, I’m very familiar with the fundraising that is integral to keeping houses of worship up and running. The Catholic Church is not exactly shy about grabbing as much out of your wallet as it can. Vatican City in Rome is supposed to hold more wealth than many countries.
I’m also familiar with praying for favors, engaging designated holy places, holy icons, and calling forth holy spirits, saints and deities. Yes, we had all sorts of saints and angels to beckon and put to work. Thousands still travel to Lourdes, France for the sacred healing powers of the spring water there, the result of miracles by a young lady, Bernadette, who was upgraded to the official status of sainthood in 1933, under Pope Pius XI.
Then there’s Saint Anthony, the patron saint for lost items. Saint Christopher is the saint for safe travel, thus many folks I knew — including my parents — had a Saint Christopher medal dangling from the rear view mirror of their car.
Back to Japan and the shrines and temples nearby Tambasasayama.
Nishinomiya Shrine [西宮神社] in Nishinomiya is dedicated to commerce and wealth. Tainohata Yakuyoke Hachimangu Shrine [ 多井畑厄除八幡宮] in Kobe is for warding off the evil spirits of folks in their Yakudoshi (bad luck years). This would be men age 25, 42 and 61; women 19, 33 and 37. Kakinomoto Shrine in Akashi is dedicated to the deity of education and literature. My own village shrine honors Benten, goddess of art and music — perfect for my wife and I, as we are both musicians.
The photo at the top was taken at Mondo Yakujin Toukou-ji, also in Nishinomiya, a temple where people bring their trials, tribulations, crises, catastrophes, problems, and heartache. The idea is to reverse your fortunes and get on a positive track again. My wife calls it the “Karma Temple, so I guess you could say you go there to tune up your karma.
A few months ago, middle of spring, we headed about 40 km (25 miles) north to one of the most unique and beautiful temples in our area. This is the Hydrangea Temple, set on the outskirts of Fukuchiyama. We got there at the peak of blooming. And you’ll never guess. The place was wall-to-wall hydrangeas. They even had chickens!
Not sure what chickens, or hydrangeas for that matter, have to do with Buddhism.
But who am I to question?
Please remember that my large-format, full-color, deluxe LIVE FROM JAPAN! is full of photos and anecdotes about the “other side” of Japan, stories just like this one, about life away from the urban frenzy, out in the country in a traditional, rural community. As I have said many times . . . “It’s like living in a fairy tale!”
Let me share with you my adventure of discovery in the Land of the Rising Sun.
As a Kindle ebook from Amazon (US)
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Your choice of ebook formats at Smashwords
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Life In Japan: “Savings”
This first part of this story offers insight into the way the U.S. government works. The last part is another inspiring tale about Japan.
The summer when I was twelve-years-old, I had a thriving lawn-cutting business. Understand that I lived in a mobile home park. So my jobs were pretty much already “lined up”. In two rows on opposite sides of the single lane that serviced the entire community were somewhere around 200 trailers, each surrounded by tiny lawns.
(The photo on the right is a current one of the trailer park from Google Satellite Views. Now the entire area is entirely developed but back when I was a boy, it was surrounded only by fields and woods.)
Not bragging, I have to say I did a good job. So the word spread and I got very busy. After each day of cutting and trimming grass, I put my daily take in a jar.
About the middle of summer, the jar was getting extremely full . . . and very tempting. Gosh, there were a few things I really needed or wanted. So I started replacing the money with little white IOU slips. By the end of the summer, there was no money, just white slips. My savings now consisted of promissory notes.
And that’s how the U.S. government works!
Actually, it’s how most U.S. citizens function. The nation is up to its neck in “white slips” both personally and institutionally. I can honestly say I know very few people who are good at saving money. Piling up credit card debt appears to be the national pastime.
To be completely fair and accurate, however, in terms of actual personal savings rates in countries with advanced economies, Finland (-1.2%) and Poland (3.0%) are the worst, Sweden (17.1%) and Switzerland (17.6%) are on top, and the U.S. is in the middle (8.1%). By the way, these are figures from 2019. It’s certainly not as bad as I expected.
Anyway, to the point of this story.
Just this past May, a gentleman estimated to be in his 70s or 80s — who the man is still is unknown since he never identified himself and to this day remains anonymous — walked into a government office in Yokosuka City. He put six bundles of 10,000-yen notes, a total of 6 million yen, as pictured above, on the counter and announced: “These are my savings going back to when I was in elementary school. Please accept it as a donation.”
That’s the equivalent of almost a half million U.S. dollars.
Sixty-some years worth of SAVINGS!
Cash . . . not white slips.
I feel humbled.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
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I’ve written before about the uniquely wonderful national holidays Japan celebrates. It’s also talked about in my book LIVE FROM JAPAN!
This past Monday was 敬老の日, Keirō no Hi, Respect for the Aged Day here, my wife had the day off from teaching, and we had a barbecue celebration with her mother (definitely an aged person) and her older daughters. It was a splendid little party in the pergola I built a couple years ago.
Just before our festivities got fully rolling, I got a visit from one of my neighbors. The word had reached the highest government institutions. John Rachel turned 75 this summer, making me an official member of the “aged”. Not to diminish the prestige or importance of reaching this chronological benchmark, it’s not really a very exclusive club. People live very long lives here, and Japan this year recorded more people age 100 or above than ever in its history.
In any case, my neighbor brought with him gifts, those in the photo at the top.
The box of treats, including crackers and tea, was from the greater Tambasasayama area community. The bottle of expensive sake was from the mayor! He even wrote a letter of congratulations.
I suspect that this lovely gift-giving gesture was probably just a practice of my home town and other similar ones, modest size cities with more cohesion and sociability, and not the norm in the big cities.
But what a great touch on top of having a whole national holiday dedicated to us old folks!
And what a great way to make an “outsider” like me feel welcome in this charming and always amazing country, full of heart and adventure.
Finally, I have to draw attention to one of the treats.
Here is the rough translation of the messages on the package.
Life begins at 70.
When the angel comes for you at 70, tell him you’re not home.
When the angel comes for you at 80, tell him it’s too early.
When the angel comes for you at 90, tell him you’re not in a hurry.
When the angel comes for you at 100, tell him when the time comes you’ll be there.
Hmm. I assume the angel(s) speak Japanese. I think I better get cracking and make sure I’m up to speed with my command of the language!