This the first time since birthing my blog that a week has past without posting even one new train of thought. That's not to say that the train has stopped running. In fact, streams of conscious thoughts have been penned (but not posted) during these past several days while Will and I have been on the coast, enjoying time spent with Barry, Marie, Tony, Ray, David and David's Little Brother, Brant, who, at seventeen, has grown taller in height than all of 'my' men as well as his having grown taller in pride after achieving straight A's.
Will and I flew to the coast to celebrate Tony's sixth birthday, and though saying good bye when the boys left for school, this morning, proved as sad as saying hello had seen our spirits jumping for joy when we'd arrived, there's sweetness in knowing that everyone, including Brant, plans to fly to the desert, next month.
Amazing how three families (Celina's, Marie's, and ours) have succeeded in mustering connective attitudes, which have, so far, freed us to meld cultural and religious differences in this positively focused fashion: After celebrating Tony's birthday, on Friday, which included coloring Easter Eggs, we chose to join in the fun of an Easter egg hunt, on Saturday, freeing Tony and Ray to celebrate their holiday, happily, with their dad's family, on Sunday.
Looking forward to April, Will and I, Steven, Celina and Stessa, Celina's mom and uncle and several of our friends, whom we embrace as family, are eager to welcome Barry, Marie, Tony, Ray, David and Brant, who plan to fly in and gather round our dining table, where three generations, comprising more than one religious ideology, plan to enjoy Passover, together.
I have a theory about the origin of religious differences, which, I've freely discussed in mixed company, countless times, though that train of thought has not yet been posted ...
Once stream of consciousness plugs into intuitive trains of thought, I find my mind switching tracks in this way: Rather than contemplating differences in religious ideologies, which have continued to evolve, over thousands of years, I find myself reflecting over similarities, such as these:
When considering Easter and Passover ...
Both holidays symbolize the human spirit refusing to bow to governmental oppression
Both holidays revere the existential belief of freeing our souls from narrow mindedness
Both holidays commemorate the freedom to think as individuals with separate beliefs
Both holidays take place during Spring, with eggs, symbolizing rebirth of new life
Moses, who chose to lead the Jewish people out of slavery in the Middle East
Celebrated the first Passover as a testimony to religious (and political) freedom
Jesus's last supper (with friends, who'd grown to feel like family)
Celebrated Passover before submitting to torture as testimony to need of religious freedom
Joan of Arc chose burning over capitulating to tyranny during The Spanish Inquisition
The Great (?) Crusades were known to pillage, rape and murder with religious (?) fervor
If Moses, Jesus, Joan, and Richard swooped down, along with Socrates, to
Grace our Seder with their presence, I'm sure they'd suggest that
One and all consider the improbability of world peace talks evolving toward
Possibility until 'extended family' considers the fact that thousands of years of
Animosity have built up countless layers of negatively focused, defensive
War-like attitudes, which must be set aside in favor of backtracking through history if
Both sides are to gain flashes of insight into reconciling to the fact that naught
Has been gained by 5,000 years of religious wars, other than sorrowful
Loss of life, blistering mutilation and eons of festering pain, infecting generations of
Men, women and children with explosions of unresolved PTSD ...
And with that said, today's train of thought turns to Ramadan (also known as
Ramadhan or Ramzan), celebrated during the ninth month of
The Islamic calendar, at which time (as with Yom Kippur), this holiday offers those of
The Muslim faith a period of prayer, fasting, charity-giving and self accountability
Ever wonder why the Pope wears a yalmukah?
And now that today's post has offered hints of that which streams through my mind (when I'm in synagogue or find myself an invited guest at a church wedding), concerning changes within religious ideologies, which have continued to evolve over thousands of years, intuitive thought suggests quieting my voice so that you can listen, more closely, in case your voice of intuition dares to whisper of insight-driven trains of thought cycling round inside your head, which may, over time, sing harmonically with mine ...
Thank goodness Mother Nature saw fit to make us the gift of two ears so that at those times when one ear remains closed to trains of thought that differ from those, which you or I had been raised to uphold above all others, intriguing ideas, concerning deeper truths, may circle round your head until thoughts that oppose your own make so much sense as to gain entrance into your open ear, where ideas, worthy of independent contemplation, may tunnel ever more deeply through your grey matter until they reach the pass-through window, leading into the open minded side of your brain, which taps into your existential need to quest toward deeper truths, which walls of denial are known to block from conscious awareness until, low and behold, flashes of readiness clear the way for these truths to begin to emerge from subconscious storage, at which time The Bard, sensing the welcoming breeze of change-for-the-better, wafting through the desert's sunlit sky, may choose to spread his wings and swoop down to occupy Elijah's chair, causing every eye—taught to absorb religious belief from differing points of view—to pop with disbelief as each person, seated at our Passover table, feels utterly mesmerized to see this literary icon, shaking his head from East to West before focusing his piercing stare upon penetrating the most tender spot of each one's heart as the spirit of The Bard offers up this insight into deeper truth whence his literary bent thinks to ask us to ponder upon this fifth question, when only four had been asked before:
Alas ... Blind souls, must thy generation pass the warring baton to the younger generation when insight, over countless generations has never failed to spotlight the fact that, sages continue to implore leadership to educate their populous in hopes of empowering the innate intelligence of men, women and children to retire much ado about nothing in favor of savoring life in a world where common sense directs religious and political leaders to truly inspire the better side of human nature to care as soulfully for one and all as we learn to take good care of personal friends during their times of need so that, rather than acting out (like extended family, who can't get along with siblings or in-laws, because one faction insists on playing immature mind control games with their brethren), we can actually invest our smarts and money into relieving worldwide misery, at long last ... I mean, seriously, being role models, mustn't we stop stagnating as leaders by invigorating our maturity levels to seek insight into methods of conflict resolution that prove effective with family at home, with our neighbors, next door, and finally, amongst politicians, before we can hope to mend relations amongst nations on a global scope, thus achieving world peace, sometime in the distant future when a humanitarian frame of mind has grown so expansive that visions of enjoying a peaceful existence match reality, working toward that long range goal, one step at a time?
(Though Socrates [being an orator, who knows that people can listen attentively for only so long] might edit that soliloquy quite a bit, The Bard [being a writer] proves to be as fruitful with words as is true of me.)
With positive focus envisioning the blessed event of world peace actually coming to pass, future contenders, vying for Miss America's tiara, will be forced to make astute use their noodles during televised moments when the host of the pageant asks this bevy of beauties to expose what's on their minds (other than mustering the humility to weep, prettily, while being crowned) ... And now that my train of thought has somehow switched tracks from profound contemplation toward girlish-silliness, which held our nation spellbound at an earlier time when every little girl coveted the bouquet of roses that accompanied Miss America's crown while every little boy longed to be an athlete, policeman, fireman, lion tamer or President of the USA, let's throw my brain's engine into reverse and back up in time to save my train of intelligent thought from growing so nonsensical as to waste your time and mine by spinning words that make no sense, at all ...
Though there's always need for levity to balance life's miseries, my mind can't veer too far from thoughts of Pakistan and Brussels in need of healing while the voting populous of our nation pops beer cans while listening to potential political candidates debating over the size of a possible presidential penis, based upon the small-minded grasp of a man's mind, followed by a smear campaign, concerning which wife will trump the other if crowned fairest First Lady in the land ... I mean, seriously, whether your table is graced with ham or matzoh balls, I'm sure you'd agree with my need to say: God help us, one and all!
Upon reflection, examples of free speech, running wild from podium to podium, frees my conscience of concern over comparing my train of thought with our nation's political runaway train, which continues to prove so immature as to crash, head on, into one defensive wall after another, illustrating how blind each of us tends to be to oneself when depth in self awareness is lacking, though book smart we may be, suggesting why a deeper understanding of world history and a whale of positively focused patience need to be absorbed by both East and West before visions of world peace and reality, match—as the time line continues to evolve ...
And if you ask for my deeply considered opinion, concerning our darkly colored vision of world wide strife, which the bent of my mind feels need to brighten, I'd reply: Each many layered train of thought, which intuition empowers my mind to write, highlights insight into the global scope of our lives, today, and I've come to believe that a sense of farsightedness has opened my mind to absorbing this deeper truth as fact: Despite all of the horrors of world wide misery, as witnessed by hindsight, on a massive scale, we've also played witness to succeeding generations working to create change for the better, inching forward on the time line, upon which, history has been written, all along—and in nations, which fail to learn to heed history's lessons, each next generation suffers as did the last—and thus must the West remain ever more courageously involved in educating the masses, comprising third world countries, who look to us for leadership that proves intellectually educated and so emotionally mature as to discipline one's mouth from jumping track, like a run away train, whose think tank has not yet developed an effective Line of Self Control that's empowered to sit an egocentric attitude in time out ...
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