It bothers me that the consciousness of Americans is so shattered that almost no one recognizes the schizophrenic nature of their thinking. Exactly what do I mean by “schizophrenic nature of their thinking?” I mean the way people embrace a variety of issues without realizing that these issues represent contradictory principles. I mean the way we say one thing and do another. I mean the inability to be consistent.
We cry about racism in places like Ferguson and yet fail to examine the underlying attitude that infects everyone in America – the attitude that we are better, smarter, richer, more educated, and more deserving than any other country in the world.
We mount internet campaign after internet campaign designed to protest everything from control of the internet to capital punishment to fracking to animal poaching in Africa, yet never get off the couch to really do anything different. Why? We’re too busy slaving away to make a living...yet never examine this.
We fuss and worry about money and our credit scores, yet walk into stores and pay the price marked on the price tag without saying a single word simply because we have been conditioned away from bargaining – which means we have been robbed of a voice in the transactions of life.
We protest abortion and yet celebrate with parades when soldiers who have killed dozens come home from wars in faraway places. Once the parade is done, we abandon the soldiers, never thinking of what it might have cost them to be in that awful experience. We are just secretly glad it wasn’t us.
We refuse to fund birth control or abortion, and even more stupidly try to tell our young people that their sexual urges are ‘sinful,’ which absolutely runs counter to life and its natural beauty. At the same time, we won’t touch the issue of the right to have as many children as we feel like or address the responsibility to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves and our children in a clear and caring manner. We seem to have no realization that we are creating future humans.
We communicate endlessly on cell phone and iPads, yet can barely manage a face-to-face conversation without anxiety, judgment, and misunderstanding getting in the way. We have learned how to operate a gadget but we have forgotten how to listen.
We complain about suffering with a thousand and one health problems, yet continue to stuff ourselves with fake food that cannot rebuild the body because there are no nutritional factors in it. We could grow our food directly, but we are mostly too busy protesting racism and abortion, mounting internet campaigns, trying to make enough money to replace our voice, and playing on our iPads.
We run around fighting the war on drugs while ignoring the fact that this is a significant source of income for our government and a significant loss of spirituality for us. Consciousness-altering plants are Mother Nature’s offer to awaken consciousness and realize that there are many dimensions of reality out there.
There is only one way to shift your life and that is to recognize all the places where you are being inconsistent and contradictory in your thinking. Next, learn to be consistent and decide what is important to you. Structure your life, your time, your energy, your money, and your relationships to accomplish those things that have meaning to you. If the structure you set up is not quite right, change it…and continue changing as you change so that it is always right for you.
The best way to maintain an old world that isn’t working is to pour protest and attention into it. The best way to create a new world that could work much better is to pour attention and effort into it. The key is attention…remember that!
Comments
Lesley
I love this penny. Would you mind if I post it to Facebook (if I can figure out how ?)
Sent from my iPhone
>
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Go ahead, Lezley! And thank you!
July 27, 2017
Pat
Thank you Penny. I’m listening.
Sent from my iPad
>
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Good for you, Pat. Now…can you teach that to everyone everywhere???
July 27, 2017
Kimberly Andert
Well….all of this is certainly true. But I believe that decrying racism, mounting internet campaigns for animals, and many of the other things you mentioned are part of raising the conciousness of the “unawake”, for lack of a better term. People who are trudging through their lives, insulated, unhappy, unaware, are slowly being nudged awake by these events. For some people, it becomes their wake up call. For others, it may only have a small effect-for now. A large part of the human race is selfish and greedy. It will be a long time before these people get it, and contribute to changing our world for the better. Do I wish they would all have a communal epiphany, so we can start healing the planet and ourselves? Hell yes! Unlikely though, so in the meantime, we can only go about as individuals, or small groups, trying to influence larger groups. I find the resistance to change very frustrating, but I was there once, too, unaware, so we have to just patiently keep doing the work, in hopes of waking more people up. If that means internet petitions and buying local produce, than I am in!
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Hi Kim, thanks for the observations. I got your call a few days ago but had too many people here to do anything other than tend to business! I agree that the things you mention are seen as ways of helping to raise consciousness, and I also like the results of some of them. I think the majority of “People who are trudging through their lives, insulated, unhappy, unaware…” MIGHT be slowly nudged awake, but for the most part, those people don’t read the kind of stuff that you or I read and thus they really aren’t paying attention to anything but a few headlines that get shrugged away. That said, I think there are many people who are awake but they don’t know really know what do with what they know, and they are held in place by contradictions. They are waiting for something to change, for avenues to open that they are comfortable with so they can take some action. Meanwhile, the internet campaigns and protests lead people to think they are doing enough, when the truth is they are capable of much more. Some days it feels like we are all caught in the mediocrity of lives that are “insulated, unaware” and basically unsatisfactory. However, all resistance to change is within the self. Then we project it outward onto others and the system. We blame the system for failing to change so our individual life can be different. I don’t think there is going to be any communal epiphany, and waiting around for one is a naïve illusion. However, there can be an individual epiphany! A lot of energy is lost in efforts to maintain contradictory positions. It’s a case of being unable to see the whole forest because there are too many trees in the way. While internet petitions and buying local produce are at least something, my words are meant to make those who are awake examine themselves a little deeper and thus gain access to the energy that is freed up when you are no longer caught in issues. Bill Mollison of Permaculture fame said it best, “There is no central structure, but rather a strong sense of shared work” to be done. It is time to focus on creating what we DO want instead of what we DON’T want.
Much love to you,
Penny
July 27, 2017
Nancy Freier
I appreciate these words very much and now I don’t feel so alone because I see there are others on the same bandwagon. I would love to connect … myself, my magazine ‘The Inner Voice’ and its contributors … to helping raise awareness in creating (and paying attention to) what we DO want, while pulling our attention back from what we don’t want. Although it appears an uphill battle, let us remember to call in the angelic realm in this endeavor. They wield great power in turning our attention toward good and they carry much bigger sticks! :)
July 27, 2017
resilient-health
Great article Penny! Wrote a brief post recently touching on some of the same issues. Seems like most if not all of these problems boil down to believing the ego’s other-making narrative, rather than affirming the commonality of Being. I’d appreciate your feedback! http://resilient-health.org/2015/07/24/its-about-othermaking/
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Thanks, Michael. I really liked your website and the post on “other-making.” I’m not sure how we got so far off course in our perception of “others” as people we can’t trust, don’t like, or need to defend against. Sometimes I wonder if it was part of the hidden legacy of WWII soldiers who returned home but could never relax. Those of us raised in homes with veterans may have picked up the subtle watchfulness and tensions of seeing the world as a place where there is “enemy” hiding. The disappearance of good food complicated that way of seeing the world, as various minerals and vitamins are the moderators of feeling and perception. Rebuilding is a slow process, and I am grateful for those who push on into the new world!!
July 27, 2017
Penny Kelly
Yay, Nancy! You are definitely not alone! I think the best – and maybe the most – we can do is connect long enough to know that others are out there doing what they can. That will have to be enough for now. The world changes very slowly, and only as a response to what its people are doing – so we just need to get out there and do what we love without waiting for approval or attention, and without worrying what the neighbors think!
July 27, 2017
Leave a comment
Also in Letters To Earth
Children are a Gift to Oneself
January 05, 2020 1 Comment
Continue reading
Money, Cryptos, Gold and a Space-based Civilization – Pt. 1
November 23, 2019 4 Comments
Continue reading
A Barry Sanders Moment...
October 29, 2019 2 Comments
A Barry Sanders Moment...
"...Barry Sanders was a little guy, only 5’8”, but he was fast, he was light on his feet, he was alert, and he was supremely flexible. It didn’t matter that the forces arrayed against him were huge, heavy, and coming from every direction, all of them ready to pile on. Each of us is a little guy compared to the forces we now face. I think it’s time to decide if you’re going to be around long enough to help build a new civilization.
Continue reading