This is why we need people like Bill McKibben, 350.org, and the Climate Summer riders!
Do we continue to tell our children stories from books written by others, many owned by the corporate media? Or, better yet, do we tell stories from our hearts and souls to allow our children to take part in the story while learning to be "Culture Makers" more so than "Cultural Followers"? This does not negate our denying great stories such as The Wizard of Oz or The Never Ending Story. These kinds of classics can entice meditation and increase depth. But, what of shows like the Flintstones and Jetsons that portray past and present as continuations of corporate consumer induced cultures.
How will all THAT time spent in the various modalities effect future generations of children living on what is daily becoming more and more a "dead planet"? Look around in your suburbs, your box stores and your cities. Do you REALLY see life in the paved-over lands you roam about on? Or do you see a mirror of an anorexic Barbie Doll nearing death? Are even our rural lands as pristine and bio-diverse as they once were? No, not even our wilderness and rain-forests escape our culture of greed!
How are you living? Are you living a life that will be sustainable for future generations? What kind of future are we leaving your children? Do your care? Hey, my mother once said the future generations were not her problem! Do you model her? How do you feel about what many in the past generations have set up for us today? How do we judge the likes of Caesar and his descendents/clones in Western Civilization ranging from the Protestant and Catholic Churches to the United States Government and its rulers: the corporate and banking elite?
Do we really want Rome ruling us? I'm not talking about the Catholic Church. I'm speaking to the essence of Western Civilization in philosophy and behavior. Are we willing to be dominated by an Empire in which more and more of us are excluded from the benefits and forced into labor for our Caesars?
Or, do we follow the likes of Bill McKenna and the Climate Summer Riders and become more than Rome? Do we write our own Declaration of Independence from oppressive, genocidal empire?
We Greek-Roman-Babylonian-Egyptian descendents are creating a wasteland, and are quickly approaching the creation of a lifeless, decimated planet. Does Mother Earth have to start the evolutionary process all over from the level of bacteria and plankton, regenerating waters, soils, and atmosphere supportive of advanced species? The spreading deserts and wastelands are a product of our actions, which are a product of our imagination or lack thereof. They are the product of a culture that values production and monetary wealth over life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Which is more important to us--our possessions or our families, including the family we share with all of Nature?
The spreading deserts and wastelands are also a mirror to our lack of relationship. It is only through love that we can conceive. Thus, our minds ARE reflections of the wasteland that we are creating on this Earth (and vice-versa). When we gaze upon a polluted landscape, or gather in big-box stores or shopping malls to celebrate our Sabbaths, we are viewing a mirror of ourselves.
This is all reminiscent of the song by Bob Dylan titled "My Back Pages". The line saying it all was: "Fearing not, I became my enemy, in the instant that I preached." Thus the Christian became Rome. Yes, we preach about peace, love and even the environment. But, then, we refuse to let go of what we think we are and how we should be. Our conditioning is that strong. Thus the hippies of the 60's and early 70's became the yuppies of the 80's. We are a fad ridden lot with no depth. We only think of ourselves, while leaving the Earth a wasteland for our children.
However, as much as our minds are polluted by cultural conditioning, and have generated a polluted world in our wake; so also are our minds filled with lush, creative ideas reflective of a mind sparkling with the clarity of a cloudless sky. The Buddhists call this the Unconditioned Mind. It exists in all of us. We need to let go of our cultural conditioning and become newborn and free of ourselves as the author Lao Tzu speaks in the Tao Te Ching .
Can you see why the various ancient stories manifesting around the time of the Babylonian-Egyptian-Greek and Roman times resulted in various stories of a Savior God born of a Virgin? People were yearning for change! They wanted a new life born of a Psyche that was beyond the conditioning of modern civilization! Yet, that Savior God was often murdered. He was sought as an infant and as an adult was often killed. Thus our creativity and uniqueness is squashed by the corporate powers-that-be through television and computerized drama shows.
Unfortunately, we have externalized the message. By corporate (church and state) deed and teachings, we declare not a story of empowerment, but one of Roman dis-empowerment. Yes, the Romans-turned-Corporations take the children born of women early. First it was the men being taken out of their lives. Now, more and more, it is the women. In place of parents and communities, we have caregivers and educators, carefully indoctrinated to pass along Empiric values. Our children are like the monkeys that psychologist Harry Harlow used in those horrid experiments with wire meshed mothers. What he found was that monkeys raised on a wire meshed mother draped with soft cloth were psychologically healthier than those raised on a mother that had no softness to her. Just think if those monkeys were raised on a real monkey's breast? Imagine hearing the heartbeat, experiencing the softness and the warmth. And, the safety!
Yes, the Romans, the wire mesh mothers, took over the Christians they murdered in the lion dens. They have now taken over all of Europe and have gone on to rule the entire world. In so doing under the guise of the Spanish, English and other European nations--and now the United States--they have destroyed indigenous cultures around the world, and has all but robbed the entire planet of its highly evolved life.
But, its not all doom and gloom! Women still have breasts surrounding the comforting rhythmic beat of their heart to sooth and nurse the future generations of humanity into health. Interesting how nurse means to foster health as well as to breast-feed!
Organizations such as New England Climate Summer and 350.org help us foster change in moving beyond our "growth gone wild" mentality brought about through corporate conditioning (call it brain washing if you will!). Climate Summer sponsors young people who ride through places like Maine to research, observe and even work with others who are fostering a sustainable, resilient and equitable future. At climatesummer.net we learn
Climate Summer is a summer internship program for college students, graduate students, and recent graduates. Climate Summer riders travel exclusively by bicycle in small teams across New England, spending approximately one week in a community before biking on to the next. While in each town, riders connect with community leaders who are actively addressing society's addiction to fossil fuels by crafting local solutions that strengthen communities.
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