I came across this little tidbit, and it really set me thinking. Read it yourself, and then think / respond... The source link is at the bottom...

I have to admit, there has been a slump in my output... I think it has more to do with stress and the world caving in all around me more than it had to do with my abilities... So I was not worried. I was just absorbing. But there has been so much to absorb...

When I was younger it was easier. I just had to think about love and songs got rolling. It's because love interest and how love affects you is a dominant thing in a young life. Understood.  Now it seems that although love is still a focus, more worldly things come into place... This earth is amazing... And humans are amazing... The horrors we inflict are deafening... The beauty breathtaking. So all things in balance...

How all this came to be is a mystery so deep it seems to invade my thoughts on a daily basis, as does the pain and suffering of millions when I read the news. So absorbing life has been more difficult this time. Which leads to either darker material or lighter (as the antithesis of it all)... I've been doing both.

Anyway. Now I am having fun with making music. I've been singing more and more each day in my car driving around. Voice is getting into shape. As I write this my throat is hurting, but it is a good pain, the sort that an athlete gets when he or she knows the training is good. I am owning this feeling.

Something is coming, and that something is songs.


 

I sometimes forget... A friend helped me to remember this...

Something strange happened to me today as I walked through the pier at Santa Monica... I saw many street performers, and I didn't stop really... Just casual distant observation as I was walking... But there was this one...

He was saying something like, "All I need is five little dollars... Just five, and everything will be perfect...!" I did not watch the beginning of his act, so I had no idea what he was going to do. He introduced this little girl as his best assistant ever, and something in my mind clicked in interest. She was colllecting the cash. The crowd waned a bit... And no money came forth. So the guy says, "Spiritually speaking, it's not the money. So forget the money then. Give me some good energy and I'll finish off the show!" And he did this crazy contortion / break dance thing. And the crowd dispersed. since I was on the fringes, I went on my way...

Seriously, less than two minutes later, while my family was looking at stuff in a shop, I felt this compulsion to give this guy that five dollars. I don't know why. But in my soul I knew I had to. So I walked back to where he was cleaning up and there he was, with his little girl and his grandmother (i think) helping him pack up. He looked weary, but he was clearly enjoying having his grandmother and daughter with him and supporting him. I felt at once an incredible love for this family.

I went up to him and I said, "Good show, and you said you needed just five little dollars, right?" The look in his eyes told me the same thing that I knew a few minutes before. There had been a communication. It may not have been a voice per say, but there it was. In the grand scheme of things, something knew he needed that money, and that I had it in my pocket to give. Strangers crossing paths at random? Not for me.

Maybe I am deluded. But I tell you what... My delusion sure felt good for the rest of the day, and if that was my sole purpose for being in Santa Monica today... I am beyond satisfied. I played a part in a cosmic game and got to see it almost from the inside. Call me crazy, I'll love it!

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

I was wondering about your thoughts on this Swine Flu scare... ?

Watching this gives me hope, and not the false one that we all speak of, but the actual one that comes when people take action in their world and get off their asses to do something. And from such a young person, this is astounding. i am happy and proud of her... Who is she?

The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes.



Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born November 30, 1979 in Vancouver, Canada) is
an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. Born to
writer Tara Elizabeth Cullis and geneticist and environmental activist
David Suzuki, she has spoken around the world about environmental
issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in
mind, and take individual responsibility.

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I was taken back by surprise at the amount of responses to my Life After Death post... It seems that we must spend quite a bit of time on it in our thoughts...

So I pose another one for me, and for you...

What is next for you?

What is the dream that lies undone? The deed that didn't happen, the lost something... What comes next???

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the seminal book by George Orwell, society is oppressed, with Big Brother bearing down on all citizens. News and Politics are delivered as NewSpeak, and the Thought Police is always on the lookout for those who oppose the New World Order…(the term seems childish doesn't it?)

In many ways, 1984 was prophetic. Many people feel that the Orwellian world, this seemingly impossible world of police states and loss of individuality is naught. That what is represented in this fictional work would never come to pass. Orwell made sure it was painted well. He designed a myriad of ways for the intelligent man or woman to catch this before it could begin. He gave us the clues to the how bleak future. But he forgot something. No. Worse, he could not have imagined it in his wildest dreams. He couldn't imagine us liking it.

Orwell could never have imagined the ‘marketing’ of such a terrible thing as human tracking. He lived in a world that was still proud of its heritage and strengths. His brethren and families close to him had been in a world war, facing yet another. How could they have known that in the future, Big Brother would not rule by force but with the unflinching complicity of its citizens? How could he know that Big Brother did not need to cast a dark stare from the TV screen? Just give the people technology that enslaves them and sell it to them as a luxury. Let them enslave themselves with pleasurable distractions.

From the simplest of devices, one can find the subtle hints of this. Want to know where your friends are? Look them up on GPS of course! You can see exactlywhere they are going. Isn't that just the coolest thing? Or how about this? If grandma or little Billie should get lost, we can use PLD (Personal Locating Device) or Digital Angel (now there's a name) embedded in their arm in the form of a tiny RFID chip to find them and bring them home? Isn't that great? And we can stop terrorism in its tracks by having this little thing in all of us, to make it harder for the terrorists to attack Amerika. Isn't that just swell? Don't you want to sleep well, knowing that everything is under your control?

No. Orwell could never have predicted that marketing something terrible could still result in sales. The numbers don't lie. People like these contrivances of technology. They are only fed the things they want to hear: Find Friends, Flirt, Meet, Engage! But avoided are the words, Tracking, Papers, National Identification, Slavery or Human Rights. These things, these terms, are made to feel passe, old school. And to say them you are labeled a conspiracy case.

What have we done? Where did this all go wrong? As I sit and write this, the G20 are saying that a global currency is at hand, and that these nations are in fact welcoming such a shift. After all, they argue, the world has become smaller. We need to lose a bit of sovereignty to become a global community. International co-operation to end this financial crisis will require all citizens to agree and adapt to this New World Order. The good will overshadow the bad. That's what they tell us. And most people on the street agree.

And as I get ready for bed, Korea has begun fueling their missile, and Japan prepares to shoot it down. Israel want to go into Gaza again. The US says that Israel may preemptively strike Iran at any moment. And no one in the real world is talking about it. Instead, they are chatting with their "friends" on Myspace about how cool it is that the iPhone can tell you what song is playing (without questioning the technology behind it) and none of them... With few exceptions (and I mean a few) will ever write a letter to congress or their senators. Too busy uploading pictures, writing, playing, wanting... and buying.

I bet old George is wishing he'd been around to release a revised 1984 right now. It's new title would be... Two Thousand Nine.

Claude S.

http://vodpod.com/watch/1484594-anything-box-all-t...

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After all that talk about life after death, I had a dream and it was to do this video. So I collected some photos from the Peace era, some nerve, and set out to explore the dream... And this came out. See what you did? You influenced me.

So, the new topic is... What is the most memorable dream you've ever had?

http://vodpod.com/watch/1473463-anything-box-worth

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I thought you might like this... These pics were taken in Berlin. It was a trying time, but we got through it with humor, friendship and music. Tell me what you think...

Have you ever been away from home for a long time? What happened?