The Reluctant Messiah

When I was a know-it-all in my twenties I used to put down Richard Bach of "Johnathan Livingston Seagull" fame as being a media-created lightweight, etc. Many years later when I was in therapy for a while, my therapist who is really a cool guy gave me a copy of "Illusions - The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Bach in which he (the therapist) wrote: "Tom. Just another level/way of looking at life/fantasy/illusions. Hope you can enjoy it. Dave."

Since then I have read the book, or parts of it, many times. I was just looking at it tonight, reading over one of my favorite parts in which Shimoda (the reluctant messiah) and Richard are sitting outside in the darkness talking. Shimoda says that "we are all free to do what we want to do." Richard corrects him saying that's OK as long as it doesn't hurt someone else. At that point a visitor appears who has a heavy Transylvanian accent. After some small-talk the visitor says to Richard, "you can help me. I need this very much or I would not ask. May I drink your blood? Just some? It is my food. I need human blood."

Richard freaks out, but the visitor persists, noting that he will die if Richard does not let him suck his blood. At this, Richard gets violent and threatens the visitor with physical harm. At that point the visitor "looked up at me and smiled, completely at ease, enjoying himself hugely, as an actor on stage when the show is over. 'I won't drink your blood, Richard,' he said in perfect friendly English, with no accent at all. As I watched, he faded as though he was turning out his own light ... in five seconds he had disappeared."

(Now the lesson from Shimoda)

"Richard in being so fierce toward my vampire, you were doing what you wanted to do, even though you thought it was going to hurt someone else. He even told you he'd be hurt if ..."

"He was going to suck my blood."

"Which is what we do to anyone when we tell them we'll be hurt if they don't live our way."

. . .

"The thing that puzzles you," he said, "is an accepted saying that happens to be impossible. The phrase is hurt somebody else. We choose, ourselves, to be hurt or not to be hurt, no matter what. Us who decides. Nobody else. My vampire told you he'd be hurt if you didn't let him? That's his decision to be hurt, that's his choice. What you do about it is your decision, your choice: give him blood; ignore him; tie him up; drive a stake of holly through his heart. If he doesn't want the holly stake, he's free to resit, in whatever way he wants. It goes on and on, choices, choices."

"Listen," he said, "it's important. We are all. Free. To do. Whatever. We want. To do."

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dig it! The whole book is full of this kind of stuff. And, there are all these cool sayings from the Messiah's Handbook interspersed throughout. I'll leave you with a couple of them:

"Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully."

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours."

Ciao for now,

~ Tom

Found the audio for FDR speeches

A while back I posted a link to the text version of FDR's great acceptance speech at the 1936 Democratic convention and promised I would look for a link to the actual audio. Eureka! Here it is. (It takes about a minute for the site to load so have patience). Fortunately, this site has numerous other FDR speeches, all of which I intend to listen to in due course. However, I recommend that you start with the '36 acceptance speech by scrolling down until you see:

June 27, 1936
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic National Convention

Then click the little speaker icon.

I just listened to it and it literally gave me goosebumps. Take a half hour of your day and see what it was like to have a REAL president.

~ tom

Nemesis

Opened up the book review section of the SF Chronicle this morning and read this review, which really articulates what I have been trying to say for a long time. I guess I'm going to have to spring for the book, but for now, the review will have to do. Here are a couple of salient paragraphs from the Chronicle's review. You can read the entire review here.

[Quoting the Chalmers Johnson, the author of "Nemesis."]
"I believe that to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent. The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government -- a republic -- that would prevent this from occurring. But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation is started down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play -- isolation, overstretch, the uniting of forces opposed to imperialism, and bankruptcy. Nemesis stalks our life as a free nation."

This passage, and there are many like it, may suggest that Johnson regards the country's doom as unavoidable. Other comments, however, remind us that Johnson intends the book as a call to arms. "I remain hopeful," he writes at the end of his prologue, "that Americans can still rouse themselves to save our democracy." It is a hope that the reader who makes it all the way through "Nemesis" may struggle to share. The litany of governmental misdeeds, ill-considered policies and ethical failures that makes up the bulk of the book may have a paralyzing effect on many readers, particularly given Johnson's frequent reminders as to how many of our government's most destructive activities lie beyond congressional oversight and are invisible to public scrutiny. (As he makes clear, not only do we not know what the CIA does, we don't even know how much money it spends doing it.)

The Roman Empire lasted 400 years. We ain't got a chance in hell of lasting that long.

~ tom

Nuff said...

A friend of mine just sent me this link with no comment. I humbly pass it on.

~ Tom

Not in my name...

Reported 25 minutes ago:

"BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide truck bomber struck a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad on Saturday, killing as many as 121 people among the crowd buying food for evening meals, one of the most devastating attacks in the capital since the war started."

What have we wrought? Each day I feel more and more shame.

Goodbye Junk Mail

In the spirit of turning you on to "cool" things, I'm recommending Greendimes. My son, Jesse, told me about this great service that will significantly reduce the endless, annoying junk mail that shows up in our mail boxes. I especially hate the stuff I get from ADVO, Inc. addressed to "Resident" at my address. The stuff they send is a gigantic packet of newspaper-sized multi page ads. They clog up my mail box, and worse, I have to worry that important mail will get buried in them, so I have to carefully go though it before I put it directly into my recycle bin. What a waste.

Anyway, I signed up for Greedimes about 2 months ago ($36 for a year, which all goes to planting new trees!). I noticed a decline after about a month, but yesterday was great: I received a postcard from ADVO stating "As requested, your address was removed from our list on 1/19/07." Hallelujah! I would NEVER have figured out how to accomplish that.

Tom says check it out....