Life In The Middle

 I have been stewing on this one for at least a year now, so here we go! My first introduction into the word Idolatry was as a child and we studied the Israelite people in the Bible.  As Moses was leading the people from slavery to a new life in the promised land, the people were worshiping the old gods in the form of physical idols.  It got bad enough that 20% of the Ten Commandments essentially told the people that was wrong. The Idolatry that I am referring to in this modern world has more to do with material possessions and extreme wealth accumulation.  It has more to do with staring at screens and the manufacturing of "famous" and "rich" people that many are programmed to imitate.  It has more to do with the ministry of information that is mentioned in Orwell's classic book 1984.  It has more to do with the basic functioning of Democracy depending on strong minded and independent thought, which is the primary defense against the constant onslaught of t...

This week I took a solo trip in the middle of the growing season, something I had been wanting to do for a long time.  Traveling in the fall and winter like we usually do is ok, but not the same as seeing other parts of the country in full glorious bloom!  This year we have the right team assembled to cover me, that is not always the case.  And every year there is this brief window in the growing season, right around the summer solstice, when most of the spring crops are harvested and the summer crops are rooted in and growing on, but the heavy summer harvests have yet to start.  So, I vacated our lovely slice of heaven in Morrow and went to the mountains and the ocean. Let me say here that traveling with my lovely wife Megan is a joy, we travel very well together.  We both get to do what we want to do on most vacations.  Also, traveling with buddies on fishing or camping trips is another great joy of mine.  But I was especially looking forward to spen...

 This topic of forgiveness has been on my heart as of late, so I write. What does it mean to forgive someone?  There is a great deal of internal processing that must happen for us to completely forgive someone.  First, we must see them as human and fallible, just as we are.  We must consider them and place ourselves in their position and understand that they made a mistake.  We shouldn't have to be asked for forgiveness by those who have done us wrong.  True and complete forgiveness is done beforehand, internally.  This calming of the retaliatory, reactionary anger and then forgiving is a true sign of maturity.  Over the years and after many examples of the opposite response, we grow weary of carrying those burdens.  We learn that is better for us to forgive and move on.  Do we forget?  Unless we want to keep falling victim to users we will never truly forget.  But you can remember what happened, learn the lessons, not dwell on...

Often when I feel the itch to write, to coral my thoughts and focus on one topic I will typically choose one word that has been swirling around my head and write about it.  Lately that word has been cooperation (or some similar version like cooperating and cooperative). The definition seems very straight forward, to operate together , so I will focus on those two words. When I hear the word operations I typically hear it in regards to business, military or other institutions.  Serious things are happening typically involving resources of time, materials and money.  The home itself becomes its own "operation" and the primary way all of us experience co-operation is at home.  If co-operation is not happening in the home, the people are likely miserable.  So the word operations to me means our lives outside of pure recreation.   A much broader discussion is the co or together part of the definition.  This means there are people involved other than yo...

            A friend of mine once told me that "people in agreement have power."  This is the simplest and truest thing that I have ever heard to date, so I thought I would write upon that word. To reach agreement implies that there are other people involved beyond yourself.  So the simple question is how do people reach agreement?  And, more importantly, what happens once we reach agreement?  Farmer pun approaching ... lets dig in! Agreement also implies that a conversation is being had.  In a successful conversation, all sides have had a chance to speak their mind and be heard.  To be heard, it is critical that others are listening.  To listen we need to slow down (our own thoughts), stop and consider the words that are being said. Consideration is the foundation for understanding.  To understand you must literally stand under someone, put yourselves in their shoes.  You have now just opened up your mind t...

Here is a fact: very few people openly come out as fascist, only the hardcore skinhead KKK type will do that.  No politician in modern times after Adolf Hitler has campaigned openly as a fascist.  The reason for that is simple.  After the horrors the world saw and experienced in WW2, the fascists got smart and went underground.  Never again would people openly support their agenda and they knew it.  Never again would they be able to openly mobilize an entire country to do their biddings.  And their biddings are really quite simple: endless profits, endless wealth and global domination.  Thus, the title of this article, we are all anti-fascist, we the working class people that is. I propose that fascism is very much alive and well and the USA is at the epicenter.  Why else would there be a group called ANTIFA (anti-fascists) if there wasn't fascism?  If your natural instinct is to hate ANTIFA without even considering if there are at least...