GuidoWorld

The World Touches Me

Here are the lyrics for a new song I just completed.

The World Touches Me

What I do see is more than I see everyday
What I do feel is more than I sense
Sometimes the world touches me
Keeps me company while I think

I shoot out thoughts like a Tommy gun
Words pour out in rapid runs
Painting the world that is me
Making the world I am to be

Wonder fills my joy
Laughter seasons the stew I’m simmering
Every day is a feast
So much to taste that sates and awakens
Sometimes the world touches me
Talks to me while I think

Sharing all our days
Gives my life dimension , widens my perception
Listening to the rain
The rhythm is dreamy soothes like honey

Every breath I take
Is filled with wonder new worlds to  uncover
Everything takes shape
Random seeks order when the world touches me

This lyric fits well into my current journey into learning how to purr. While I like to celebrate life in its visceral reality there are many who yearn to flee our mortal joy and find solace in spiritual transcendental ideals. On one hand such ideals yearn for the completely other plane of sacred perfection while often at the same time commanding its adherents to be completely absorbed in the present.

In up coming posts I hope to point out what I find to be potentially harmful in these viewpoints as well as their inherent contradictions.

Till then.

Jim Guido

Diversity

Probably the greatest potential benefit to globalism is in its ability to make sure that all of the planet’s inhabitants get food, shelter and all their basic needs. The sharing and strategic planning of the use of all of the earth’s bountiful resources could be implemented in an efficient manner maximizing natural resources while minimizing waste and harm to the environment. Yet, to this date, this has not been the goal or the method of globalism.

Yet, other than the sharing and distribution of basic food stuffs and needs I see little benefit  to a globalism which strives to make us all one system. Now there is no doubt that isolationism and fanatical nationalism can be harmful as well as divisive. Biology has long demonstrated the drawbacks of incest and a narrowing of the gene pool, and heralded the benefits of larger gene pools in terms of adaptability and resistance to disease.

Racial, cultural and ethnic differences contribute greatly to the growth and development of the human race. Cultural differences have us see life from different perspectives and encourage us to not get locked in a specific orientation, or become blind to life’s possibilities. Likewise the similarities between cultures give us a greater understanding of what it is to be human and the questions and tasks we all face.

Differences in language likewise reflect and in some ways create varied world views and ways to see and appreciate human thought and experience.  Some concepts and emotional stances cannot be effectively translated from one language to another. There would be much lost if we were to try and force all to speak and learn in one universal tongue.

Some suggest that through time the gene pool will become completely integrated, and that anyone thinking it won’t is in some form of denial. Though it is true that crossbreeding and an expansion of each individual’s gene pool is inevitable it is ridiculous to think that we will all evolve into one basically homogenous gene pool. Studies have shown that the majority of people are attracted to people who are similar to themselves in body and facial features as well interests and abilities. This tendency will always keep the gene pool diverse even though it is expanding.

In general most humans have two opposing but interdependent desires. One is to be accepted and loved by others, and the other is to be a unique and separate individual. This desire to want to be both the same and different is at the heart of everyones need for a sense of self and worth.  Likewise, I think this tendency plays it self out on the global/social level. Where we want to have familial, cultural and social identities while at the same time feeling connected to all human being if not nature in general.

I for one think there is plenty of room on the planet for all of us to feel special and unique and at the same time connected to many different groups of varying size and importance. The desire to end all racial, cultural and social identities seems both unrealistic and misguided. Yes, the end of racism, bigotry and parochial superiority are noble goals, but these can be accomplished without removing the beauty of human diversity. The desire to become one global family by removing all difference just seems to be one more example of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Jim Guido

Political Incorrectness

As you may have realized by now, I’m a real stickler about words and their meaning. So often we use and react to words without truly reflecting on their meaning. This is somewhat unavoidable and natural, but I believe some simple reflection would prevent so many conflicts and resolve so many false hurdles.

In many future posts I hope to give many examples of how our thoughtlessness often makes life more difficult than it needs to be. I will engage in many reframes of our world by looking at words and their meaning, and hopefully finding definitions which remove the cobwebs from our mental vision.

In today’s post I want to take a look at a few of the terms we use when identifying certain groups of people and how inaccurate of downright misleading they tend to be. In the last 50 years the US has gone through a number of terms to designate the dark skinned portion of the populace. They have been referred to as Negroes, colored people, blacks, people of color, Afr0-Americans and African Americans.

One of the major reason for the perpetual shift in designation is the desire to remove the perceived stigma in the previous term. Instead of dealing with the fact that stigmas aren’t inherent in words and titles but in people’s brains and hearts, we just hop from designation to designation as if that will solve the problem. Sort of like removing the word hatred from someone’s vocabulary will successfully extinguish the emotion the word represents.

The currently politically correct term seems to be African American which to me is a very poor term for many reasons. One is that it makes many potentially false assumptions about the person. First of all, who is to say that the dark person I see on the street is a citizen of the US. Why couldn’t they be a tourist from Europe, Asia, or some island nation such as the Bahamas?

If they are indeed from a different nation, there is no politically correct term that I am aware of that I can use in the US. I am expected to refer to all black and brown people that I see and meet as African American. Before referring to a black man or woman should I find out if they live across the border and therefore refer to them as an African Mexican, or see if they are European and refer to them as African Italian or African German?

Yes, and what if their people have been from an island nation such as Jamaica for many generations and who do not consider themselves African any more than any European whose family may have originally been from Africa many centuries ago? Is it fair to call them African when their resemblance is racial rather than geographical. In a global community where people are traveling and relocating with increased frequency why are we introducing words that designate people which are increasingly geographically based?

Is this anything more than a feeble attempt by the US government to get all people living in the US to be more loyal to it’s policies because we are all American’s, even though we are a melting pot of diverse groups?

When referring to my heritage I call myself an Italian. When talking about myself in terms of citizenship I call myself an American. When it comes to loyalties I call refer to myself as a human being. My friends who are dark skinned I refer to as blacks. I explain why I am most comfortable with that term and ask their permission to deviate from the absurd African American tag. Most of my black friends state that they refer to themselves as blacks and seldom use the African American term other than in formal political discussion.

I think it is fascinating to see our language go against the trend of society. We are living in a shrinking world where we are choosing where to live and moving frequently. It strikes me as a little more than odd that we are choosing to label people according t0 where they are located on the planet. If I were to move to China would I be referred to an American Asian, or just be called Asian?

Years ago we divided the globe into three major racial groups. Individuals where either Caucasian (white), Negro (black) or Oriental (yellow). This system was not without its controversies and gaps. American Indians were often put into their own racial group of being Redskins or they were lumped in with the Orientals. Many other people notably the people of India and the Arabs were kind of looked as being cross breeds and did not easily fit into the three race world view.

Though this system was imperfect and needed improvement it was far more accurate than our current verbiage. People who use to be Orientals or the race from Asia and other lands of the East are now Asians. Yet, once again this geographical label is far less accurate than a racial one. Does one really consider someone living in India as Asian? And again what do we do about the Arabians? Are they a separate group or all they Europeans and Asians depending on where their nation is located?

According to many sources the three racial world view of the early 20th century was actually a four race planet. The fourth racial group was the Semites which consisted of all the Arabic peoples. This group was very controversial due to the political difficulty of where to put the Jewish peoples around the world. Though they were technically Semites and referred to themselves as Semites, they were not recognizing the other Arab peoples as Semites.

I remember growing up and hearing many stories of hatred and prejudice waged against the Jewish peoples around the globe. The Holocaust was not thought of as being an isolated event but more often than not portrayed as the culmination of long standing tensions towards Jews for centuries. The Jewish community itself labeled and had labeled this bias as Anti-Semitism which they claimed had deep roots in history. I remember many of my Jewish friends explaining this as a reaction of envy of their being the chosen people. And even the nuns in my Catechism classes talked of how the chosen people all the way from Moses were tested by God. These tests often took the form of persecution and hardship in both plague and war.

To this day I still find it confusing that the Jewish and Zionist communities often bewail the strongest and harshest form of Anti-Semitism from their fellow Arabs. Aren’t the Arab nations themselves Semites? Are they all not descendants of the same tribes?

This is just another example of how we use language without thinking about its meaning and content. How much of the criticism against Israel is founded on racial hatred and prejudice of the Jewish peoples? How much of it is anger at the policies of the state of Israel often labeled as Zionism, and how much of it is political debate totally devoid of any racial or ethnic heritage?

Yet, even as I write this I worry about people perceiving me as being Anti-Semitic for even bringing up the topic. I admit I can find no term that I feel comfortable in using. Just as most terms referring to blacks have a negative connotation and leave one open to being labeled a racist or bigot, I find no term to use which frees me from being labeled a Anti-Semite.

Referring to someone as a Jew or being Jewish opens one to suspicion. So does referring to Zionism or Zionist, even though this is more about political ideology than ethnicity. I guess one could say Israeli, but this again should limit your discussion to people who actually live in Israel.

When one talks of the differences in race and ethnicity they are often reprimanded for being closed minded and judgmental. I personally find many advantages to diversity which to me adds and improves human nature and enriches our personal lives.

In the next post I will address the concerns I have with a desire to create a global community devoid of ethnic and cultural diversity.

Jim Guido

Learning How to Purr: Part 2

In my last post I started my discussion on my goal of learning how to purr. At the end of the post I mentioned that our society’s structure has many elements which are contrary to the feelings of satisfaction and contentment which are the bedrock of purring.

Both are system of economics and our political system seem to foster and thrive on creating an atmosphere of fear and discontent.

We are taught to be economically ambitious and to work hard and stay busy. The slow and lazy are felt to be dead weight on the nation’s wealth and are viewed as leeches and free loaders, essentially taking from the industrious what they have  earned “by the sweat of their brow”.  In order to avoid becoming one of these social parasites we must work hard and long at whatever job we can find.

As consumers we are encouraged and seduced into buying as many things and conveniences as we can afford. Leisure and free time which was classically the  property and status of old money (wealth), has been recently replaced in capitalistic societies with the amassing of possessions. In the olden days any one who labored was unfit for proper society, now a person working over sixty hours a week is hailed and envied if he has multiple houses, cars and the like.

This need to constantly prove one’s worth by making and spending money does not make for many contented individuals. The perpetual striving, inherent in capitalistic competition, makes it near impossible to ever feel but a momentary sense of completion. Surely, one is never allowed to “rest on their laurels” and stop proving their worth by resting contentedly for any length of time. Even our vacations are full of events, tasks and adventures which are generally more stressful than relaxing forays into solitude. Seldom are we encouraged to lick the cream from the bowl and curl up and purr for anything but a very brief respite. To make contentment our major goal would certainly fly in the face of modern convention.

Though we in the US  pride ourselves in freedom and the pursuit of happiness, we seldom talk of freedom without the fight for freedom, and our pursuit of happiness is always at a full gallop. We pursue wealth and happiness like a greyhound chasing a rabbit around the track. I’ve never seen the greyhound get the rabbit and I seldom see even the wealthiest of people stop their pursuit of the elusive wealth and happiness.

Politically are freedom is fragile and a source or envy and hatred for others. We can never relax and enjoy our freedom, instead we much vigilantly defend and fight for our freedom. Defending freedom is a full time job and we are told that those who take freedom for granted will surely lose it. Such vigilance and effort has little room for contentment or savoring what we have. Instead we are prodded into defeating all our potential foes. When one foe is defeated or dies out such as communism another threat is detected such as terrorism. Only a fool would rest when such dangers are lurking about.

As you can see the desire to purr and wallow in contentment is not something we are encouraged to cultivate in our lives. In fact, it would be safe to say, that such goals are thought of as being childish and even selfish by political and economic thought.  Such goals are in themselves indicative of a uncaring individual who does not understand the effects such a philosophy will have on the lives of their children and grandchildren.

A certain amount of trust and acceptance is necessary to make the states of contentedness and happiness an integral part of your life. A life full of ambition and fear is poor soil when your goal is to grow satisfaction and contentedness. This is not to say that a happy person has no ambition or is without goals, but that the goals have to do with savoring and self-development. After all purring is a goal and an accomplishment. One I hope to talk further on in future posts.

Jim Guido

Learning How to Purr: Part 1

One of the most powerful images of contentment and satisfaction is that of a purring cat. When purring a cat appears to be happy and quite content with the experience of the moment. My goal is to learn how to purr and to find such complete satisfaction and contentment in a increasing number of moments in my life. I want to purr in action as well as in relaxation.  I yearn to savor the moment and to appreciate the wonder of being the alive on a more consistent basis.

I’ve often noted that people generally make life harder than it needs to be. We seem to foster complications and seek conflict far more often than necessary. We set unattainable goals and forever fret over injustices done to us and things that have gone wrong in our daily lives.

It seems pretty obvious that we are all responsible for our own happiness. It also seems pretty apparent that we are free to look at almost every experience we have in a multitude of ways. It is these choices of perception and perspective which largely decide  whether we experience joy and happiness or anger and failure.

The words we choose to describe or frame our experience often create or influence our emotional attitude. My experience of a mountain view is highly affected by whether I choose to describe the peaks as foreboding, awesome, towering, majestic or lofty. These word choices can be very powerful and integral to our experience and whether we look back on the moment with a sense of joy or anxiety.

The words we choose are a part and parcel of almost every thought and experience we have. In the majority of situations we have many options available to us which will color our experience and likewise our general attitude towards the day and ourselves.

Oftentimes we make happiness something out side of ourselves or a goal that we must work to attain. One of my favorite quotes is from a Buddhist monk who reportedly told a pupil that there is no road to enlightenment for your already there. He went on to add that everyone is already enlightened, and all they need to do is uncover it and let it shine. The very seeking of enlightenment prevents one from being enlightened.

Likewise personal contentment and happiness is something already existing in ourself, all we need to do is to cultivate and appreciate it. That is why I’m focusing on learning how to purr more often with life.

There is a difference between uncovering and fabricating joy. Fabricated joy is when we choose words and perceptions that we don’t really believe in an effort to have a positive attitude. This style is often steeped in denial where we say affirmations and positive statements to mask our pessimism and pain. This self-deception and forced optimism is unhealthy and more often than not produces fantasy and not appreciation of real life and experience.

In the next blog I’ll discuss ways in which are society is structured which make it difficult for people to make purring a common experience in their life.

I plan on doing a host of posts on this subject interspersed with other topics designed to have us take a look at how amazing human experience is. Please take the time to look over my lyrics as they too focus on the wonder and versatility of human existence.

Jim Guido

The Darker Side of Forgiveness

Growing up and attending a Catholic school run by nuns afforded me an early introduction into the finer aspects of Christian philosophy. We were taught that the New Testament in particular was the highpoint of religious thought. The life of Jesus we were told was the shining example of how a human should behave and what they should emulate. The ability of Jesus to forgive all sin, and even those who persecuted him was often held up as the finest example of the Christian spirit, and what truly distinguished Christianity as the superior and most evolved religion.

We were taught to beg God for forgiveness for all our sins and transgressions, and we were instructed to forgive all those who had treated us badly. Forgiveness if not the highest of human ideals was certainly one of the most desired qualities to cultivate.

Yet, at an early age I started to become a little suspicious of the golden glow of forgiveness. I often noticed how people used forgiveness as a tool to make themselves appear superior to others. Many felt their ability to forgive their enemies made them a better person. It was like they were saying, “the fact that I can find it in my heart to forgive your horrible behavior shows that I’m a bigger and better person than you”.

By the time I got to seventh and eighth grade I began to notice how often people forgave others for something they didn’t even do maliciously. At times they were being forgiven for something that they probably should have been thanked for or praised.

It was about this time that I realized that before you could forgive someone you first had to blame them.  This realization had a strong impact on my personal life and how I dealt with others.

I myself was more impressed with the ability to understand and accept another person rather than forgive them for an injustice. First of all who was I to decide that what a person did was wrong, or judge them and label them as needing to be forgiven. Second, nothing seem to be solved or improved by my act of forgiveness. If someone did actually do something which was harmful or wicked it seemed more important to help them or dissuade them than forgive them. Again, saying I forgive you to someone seemed like a real ego trip on my part, like my forgiveness really mattered.

I have always striven to understand and in many cases accept the actions of others. I was brought up in a relatively violent household. Yet, I never forgave my parents for their brutality because I never blamed them for their actions. Even in high school I understood that my parents were doing close to the best that they could, and had treated me far better than they were treated by their parents. This is not to say that I was in denial or glorified them, but rather I accepted them and tried to make my life with them as good as it could get.

Forgiving them seemed not only ineffectual, but kind of callous and insensitive. The only benefit I could get from forgiving them would be to diminish my desire to retaliate or hurt them. I guess that is the essence of the benefit of forgiveness, it helps keep your behavior in line and terminates a possible on-going battle.

At some point in time pagan people out grew their gods, they became more ethical and humane then the gods that they used to venerate. At such times people create new gods or at least up-dated their gods to a higher standard of behavior that was worthy of their veneration.

I guess I feel we have reached such a juncture in history where we have outgrown even the noblest characters of our gods. Even our current gods are too violent, vindictive and vain.

Yet, I neither blame our gods nor feel a need to forgive them.

When it comes to forgiveness I think it is important to always keep in mind that one cannot forgive unless one first blames.

Jim Guido