Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
The world may be chaotic but we individually can remain whole and focused.
Our leaders may be amoral and manipulative but we individually can be respectful and sensitive to one another.
The daily stream of news reports can be filled with vileness, anger, confusion, and loss of hope but we individually can be fountains of joy, vision, clarity, fellowship, and positive change.
The existing ten should all slide down a notch to make room for a new, necessary First Commandment.
1st Commandment: When it comes to others who embrace beliefs different than yours, thou shalt shut up and mind your own business.
I
was raised strict Catholic from the late 1940s until July 1961. I
attended Catholic school for six years. The indoctrination was
mind-boggling -- literally! I'm not sure where things stand now.
Allegedly the Catholic Church has made some giant leaps forward. I find
the word 'leap' a little hard to swallow. After all, it took them over
300 years to pardon that wildly insane heretic Galileo for declaring
that the sun was at the center of the solar system. It's too late for
his family to sue.
What
I was taught, with no room for interpretation or even the slightest
bending of the rules, was that Catholics were true believers, everyone
else was a pagan and would burn mercilessly in Hell for it. This
obviously included jungle-dwelling savages with the bones through their
noses, anyone with slanted eyes, hairy-chested men on horses who raped
and pillaged without pause, witches, witch-doctors, probably
acupuncturists. But it also referred to -- brace yourselves -- all Jews
and Protestants!
Talk about being exclusive. The Catholic Church didn't mess around!
I
left that all behind. I remember the moment well. Both of my parents
were dead. I was attending a Catholic mass, summer of 1961. I tried to
listen to what the priest was saying. I looked around. People were
staring at the altar. The priest droned on, something about the Holy
Spirit. I was 15 and scared to death by a fear of eternal damnation --
something which was pounded into my head day-after-day, year-after-year
by both priests and nuns -- afraid as only a thoroughly brainwashed
young man can be, to do anything at odds with the Church or God or the
Commandments. But then suddenly, like that perennial bolt of lightning,
it hit me: None of this made any sense to me anymore. I walked out
and never looked back. To this day,I've never againattended a Catholic mass or Catholic service of any kind, for over 56 years now.
I
can look at religion now the way someone might look at photos in their
high school year book. Hmm . . . French Club . . . Junior Varsity
Football Team . . . Mr. Hunter, chemistry.
When
three years ago I wrote the song posted at the head of this rambling
monograph, I tried to include Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and so on. But
it's just a song. There's only so much room without turning the whole
thing into a random game of Scrabble. So . . .
I settled on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and then gave a nod to atheism in one line.
I
hear we're now in the throes of a new "Clash of Civilizations". This
refers to a war for hearts, minds, and oil fields, mainly between the
Christian West and the Muslim Middle East. The Jews are in there, since
they are allegedly under siege by the Muslims, and they now have a
marriage of convenience with the Christians -- which is about as
convenient as a marriage between a crocodile and a chicken, and makes
about as much sense.
First
of all, there's nothing "new" about this epic show down. Haven't any
of these idiotic champions of chaos and carnage shilling for this
conflict ever heard of the Crusades?
Second,
while I can buy "clash", which seems to be the operating word in just
about every interaction between the Western powers and everyone else on
the planet, "civilizations" somehow makes me think about "civil" and
"civilized". Neither apply to those participants who have by choice,
with full knowledge, by design, with clear intention, have brought the
human species and every other living thing on the planet to the brink of
extinction.
One
has to ask: Is this the best we as a product of twisted fibers of DNA
and RNA can do? Are we doomed by some kamikaze gene? Do we
periodically have to self-destruct, tear it all down? Why do we bother
with claiming it's about ideologies or religions or politics?
Because it's not. It's about hatred. It's about selfishness. It's about evil, either inherent or manufactured evil.
It's about either the evil we are, the evil we've become, or the evil that we allow to exist in our hearts and our minds.
What's
my song about? It's so simple, so naive, so straightforward, so easy
to understand. Maybe that's what makes it so difficult to take into our
hearts, try to weave it in with those strands of DNA and RNA, let it
become an antidote to the madness that drives us to reject and demonize
others, that allows us to dehumanize those who are different, that feeds
our inflated sense of importance, our "exceptionalism", our grandiosity
and rabid delusions of superiority, our ultimately self-destructive
rejection of our shared humanity.
Happy New Year! Yes, we're starting a new cycle. 365 days to do what?
Maybe the whole idea is just silly.
Peace be with us . . .
Then again, you decide for yourself. That's actually the idea.
Assuming
you've gotten this far, here are the lyrics to my song, performed in
the video by my extremely talented wife and myself, a simple
straightforward message for a complex convoluted time.
It’s a very special time of year For family and friends holiday cheer For those no longer with us We shed a tear A time to share A time of feast A time to care And pray for peace A time to give to those Who have the least
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year!
This is the time to start anew Atheist Christian Muslim Jew To reach within And find the love inside of you Discard the old seek out the new Reject the false embrace the true To look ahead decide To bring out the best in you
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year!
(Chorus – Japanese) Akemashite Omedetoo Peace be with you Happy New Year!
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with you Happy New Year!
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
As is
now becoming a tradition, here is my holiday greeting card to all. It
comes from my heart, prompted by hope that we can find harmony and peace
in our troubled world.
"Happy New Year!"
It’s a very special time of year
For family and friends holiday cheer For those no longer with us We shed a tear A time to share A time of feast A time to care And pray for peace A time to give to those Who have the least
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
This is the time to start anew Atheist Christian Muslim Jew To reach within And find the love inside of you Discard the old seek out the new Reject the false embrace the true To look ahead decide To bring out the best in you
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
(Chorus – Japanese) Akemashite Omedetoo Peace be with you Happy New Year
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with you Happy New Year
May
the new year finally bring peace to the world. May we discover and
embrace the understanding needed to live together in genuine and lasting
harmony.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
It’s a very special time of year For family and friends holiday cheer For those no longer with us We shed a tear A time to share A time of feast A time to care And pray for peace A time to give to those Who have the least
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
This is the time to start anew Atheist Christian Muslim Jew To reach within And find the love inside of you Discard the old seek out the new Reject the false embrace the true To look ahead decide To bring out the best in you
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
(Chorus - Japanese) Akemashite Omedetoo Peace be with you Happy New Year
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with you Happy New Year
Let
this new year finally bring peace to the world. May we discover and
embrace the understanding needed to live together in genuine and lasting
harmony.
I think it's about time we settle the whole Jesus/Son of God/Savior of Mankind thing once and for all.
After all, there's so much dispute about what Jesus said, what He did, what He meant, why He was here, even who He was.
Basically all of this comes down to the question about His divinity. That in one giant gulp swallows everything else. It's the elephant __ or maybe whale (see Jonah 1:17) __ in the room.
So I'm issuing a challenge to Jesus Christ personally, upon His return to Earth.
Here's my challenge . . .
When the Man-Who-Died-On-The-Cross-and-Lived-to-Tell-About-It returns to our sorry planet __ as we all know, this encore appearance is referred to among the reverent as the Second Coming __ we're going to first straight away settle the whole omnipotence thing.
After giving Him a few days much needed R and R to get His bearings and get
back up to Savior speed __ God knows what the jet lag must be coming that distance __ we're going to sit Him down to an arm wrestling contest. Yes, that's right. An arm wrestling contest!
Let's see what He's made of.
Let's see once and for all if He's really got the right stuff!
If Jesus wins, He will be crowned King of . . . of . . . well . . . everything.
If He loses, He owes us a big apology. Really big!. . . considering all of the time and money we've spent on cathedrals, churches, prayer books, pipe organs, hymnals, the Pope Mobile.
Let me state unequivocally, I think it's important here to pit Him against the best that the atheists have on their side. To be quite honest, I can't
really say I'm up to speed on atheist arm wrestling, so you folks out
there who are familiar, help me out here, by choosing from
among your heathen flock who you think can finally put Jesus in His
place. Seriously, give it your best shot! He may come off as a wimpy
preacher/philosopher/guru kind of guy __ generally these touchy-feeley
types are not exactly known for their athleticism __ but if He truly is
the Son of God and all-powerful as widely claimed, He's bringing more to
the table than steroid-soaked, pumped-up muscles. Certainly don't
underestimate Him. You might want to think David and Goliath. This calls
for brain and brawn. Jesus supposedly had a formidable bag of
tricks at His disposal first time around __ raising the dead, changing
water to wine, cripple maintenance and repair, leper healing, fishes and
loaves, water walking __ so He's definitely not a lightweight!
Folks, I'd say we're in for a real mega-event here, the veritable Super Bowl of Metaphysics! The World Series of Cosmology! Why, I wouldn't be
surprised if Arm Wrestling Mania sets new pay-per-view records.
Then when this battle of the biceps is over __ and I have no personal stake in the outcome except for the life savings I placed on a bet with a rather tawdry bookie here in Japan __ I hope once and for all we have the answers we've been looking for and can move on to tackling the
bigger, more pressing questions of our troubled times.
Like . . .
Why did they kill off Will Gardner in the hit TV series "The Good Wife"?
WHY?!!
[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
