An article by Sha'Tara - local writer and friend...

Grasping at Straws
   
[Thoughts from the Other Side—Sha’Tara]

In a recent essay I explained life as a process of emptying.  An emptying that is done through giving.  Giving away as much as we can as we go along until we are completely emptied.  Not drained—emptied—not a subtle difference!  If this process is followed according to the rules imprinted in our memory we reach a place of total ‘cleansing’; a place where all accumulations are gone, yes, including karma.  We are clean and ready to receive a whole new ‘message’ with which to proceed on our next phase of living and subsequent self-emptying. 

I did not invent this process.  The Teachers point out it is the way to understanding.  Certainly it has been described by many philosophers, mystics and holy people.  Three recent examples come to mind: Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, Mother Teresa.  I think that if you scratched any Earthian deep enough you would find that all have some knowledge of this path.  But the system is there to encourage all and sundry to seek any other but this one because if this ever caught on, well, what would happen?  Basically what John Lennon said in his song, “Imagine.”  It would mean goodbye to control and manipulation by religions, governments and financial/commercial institutions.  No more wars, no more exploitation or oppression.  No more gratuitous violence.  No more rich and poor.  

A couple of days after I wrote that life is a process of giving I happened to be listening to Neil Young’s song, “Heart of Gold” which begins thus:
I want to live, I want to give
I've been a miner for a heart of gold…


The idea is there, even in crass commercial art.  If we want to live, we must be willing to give.  The more we give, the more we live.  The more we take, the more we hoard, the more we destroy and the quicker we die.  I am not writing of a physical death here, but of spiritual death.

Science, technology and finding ‘meaning’ through faith are issues that were explored by Carl Sagan in his book, “Contact” and in the movie by the same name starring Jodie Foster.  Believing in God or in religious derivatives has not brought the human race the fulfillment it was meant to.  But leaving that to ‘worship’ the new god of technology and gadgetry has only made man’s world colder.  It’s as if the planned obsolescence of technology’s commercially-driven gadgeterizing of the planet has made people themselves obsolescent.  Who are these people who throng the malls, streets and entertainment centers?  Perhaps better to ask, what are they?  Gadget users, gadget testers, gadget abusers.  In other words they are ‘consumers’.  They consume.  And consume themselves in trivia and meaninglessness.

I would not advocate abandoning consumerism to return to the worship of a dead religious figurehead—Binder Dundat… did not work.  Whatever God was as to relevancy is better left to history.  But if not God (Religion) and if not the line of credit, the overdraft or American Express, then what?  How about something more real, more tangible, something that can be demonstrated and proven to work? 

How about ‘giving’ through compassion?

Some will say, “I have nothing to give.”  or  “I am sick, I can’t go out to help others”  or  “I have no real skills, what could I do?”
Wonderful excuses, but that’s all they are.  Life says, ‘If you are of me you have the wherewithal to give.’  It begins with a passionate desire to make this world into a better place.  It means to not steal.  Yes, anyone who takes more than is needed for basic sustenance is a thief.  A selfish person.  It doesn’t matter who we are, or where we find ourselves, we can all be selfless in self-discipline, in taking responsibility for our own passage here, in sacrificing for others (without expectations—must be ‘unconditional, always) in self-reliance and ultimately in self-empowerment.

It is past time for the people of earth to wake up from the torpor and indifference induced by their various gods, rulers, or Powers and take charge of their own lives. 

I call this ‘grasping at straws’ because it is difficult to find validation for such ideas in a hedonistic society.  I do not look for ‘earth changes’ or the Second Coming; for a rapture, or the arrival of a fleet of Pleiadian mother ships.  I look for ordinary miracles that tell me that ultimately, I’m right. 

Put enough ‘straws’ together using some common sense and you can build a craft and ‘travel’ if you have a destination.  I’m reminded of Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki expedition… 

From Wikipedia:  In the Kon-Tiki Expedition, Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers went to Peru, where they constructed a pae-pae raft from balsa wood and other native materials, a raft that they called the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. After a 101 day, 4,300 mile (8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean, Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on August 7, 1947.