Based on a dream I had today

It's a doozy. Not armageddon, nor apocalyptic, but spiritually very powerful and deep.

Would someone please tell me why my spiritual connection does not talk to me in English, but rather Hebrew, which I do not understand, and French?

Facebook Political Fights are a waste of time and bandwidth

I know people who post political comments on Facebook, but I find they tend to be the type of people who don't have an opinion so much as an affiliation with a party that leads to negative comments about anyone who opposes that party.

If we don’t reevaluate our opinions every time we receive new information, they stop being opinions and start becoming beliefs.

A belief is acceptance of truth, while an opinion is judgement of truth.

Opinions are ongoing judgements of new information, while beliefs are acceptance of old information with disregard to new information. A key element to growing as a person is forming opinions, then challenging them.

Opinion leads to politics and politics does not contain truth. Anyone who can stay silent and challenge their own ideas by staying committed to their search for truth has no need for opinion and must eventually give it up completely.

Hounded by blood center, and other news

After two calls from a predictive dialer gone haywire, I e-mailed someone at the blood center who arranged for a voice-only message to be delivered to my voice mail. I also figured that maybe there was a rush for my blood type, because not everyday am I harassed by technology, so I made an appointment.

So imagine my surprise when after two hang-ups, two e-mails, and one call leading to a scheduled appointment in one morning, the blood center CALLS AGAIN! I was testy: "I have an appointment already in an hour. You can stop bothering me." Before a live voice was on the phone, even. The second time that number called me, the first time a live person was on the phone.

I see that Senator John McCain (AZ) has withdrawn his support to have vitamins and supplements regulated by the corrupt Food and Drug Administration. I am still wondering how the Republicans in America expect people to take care of their health: restrict access to preventive care -- does that save money for people's healthcare? How about limiting the text on nutritional labels, so the consumers don't know what additives or carcinogens or neurotoxins are in the food -- does that save money for people's healthcare? All the Republicans voted NO on the Health Care Reform bill passed by the House of Representatives: do they have a better quality, cheaper plan? Considering how the Democrats bend over backwards to appease the GOP, do you think the Democrats would have gone along with a cheaper, better quality plan? (I'm thinking yes)

Do you think old people collecting Social Security and having Medicare benefits vote Republican? I'm thinking yes. All the more reason to take anti-aging health supplements to prevent dementia.

witter

I have lately taken to walking out of an area when the energy turns dark or oppressive. Today I walked a half mile to a local independent coffeehouse hoping to read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and stood in line when someone came in and dumped his backpack on the seat I wanted. It's a small coffeehouse: three people were at the south area, talking, so I wanted to be far away from them as possible. I guess he did too. This left me with a large wooden table with the Sunday paper on it, and a kiddie table I am obviously too large for. So I left. I saved about $1.50, maybe $2.60.

Took the son to his first Mass today. I expected him to be bored, so I gave him a Mass activity book and he brought pencils, asked him to be quiet and to sit in the pew while I got a blessing. Boy, did I set my expectations low. He took an offertory envelope, filled it out, put in a dollar, attempted some hymns, and walked up for a blessing. "I didn't get any wine. I should have told them I was twenty-two," he quipped after Communion.

The one place where the vibes have almost always been great is closed today.

Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal Feud on the Dick Cavett Show

I'm reminded to subscribe to the Bat Segundo program podcast. Great literature and culture podcast.

I need to read some Janet Flanner, Gore Vidal, Daniel Berrigan, Richard Rohr, Cornel West. I'm interested right now in theologians the Vatican brands heretics: Edward Schillebeeckx, Matthew Fox (now Episcopalian). I could read Rosemary Radford Ruether. There's the side of the Catholic Church that emphasizes sin, culpability, and cloaking abuses; then there's the spiritual mysteries and social justice and work of the laity I find compelling and welcoming.
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I don't miss watching television. Sure, Kids in the Hall and QI are great, but are they available on American television networks? Can American TV adopt and adapt these kinds of programs? Where is the audience? Is there a difference of the audience who has a 24-hour salesperson in their homes versus the audience who must pay for a television license or who pays some tax for a public broadcasting network like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation?

what? twice in one day?

Ah me, this is not the romanticised memory I have of Mark Hollis, yet somehow I can recall ex-Talk Talk drummer Lee Harris's interview quips "We've had to pull people off/away from Mark" and "I loved performing but not the crap that went on backstage" and it does gibe with Mark's confession of the need for gin before going onstage.

http://www.the-company.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2882

I really liked the first Talk Talk albums and we both moved from EMI to have bad experiences at Polydor in the 90's.

I met him a couple of times but not for long enough to gather an opinion about him.
I did have a run in with the band at an after show party in a Munich hotel around 86. There was a lot of drink involved and they had been really abusive to a female EMI exec who was a good friend of ours.
They had also had a run in with INXS who were on the same indoor festival bill.Talk Talk were on first and after show had got paralytic and trashed their dressing room.
I think it was Mark who had thrown a glass of gin in Michael Hutchence's face in the backstage area and the Aussies wanted to kick off with them as well that night.
We decided to join forces and take them on.

At the aftershow there was a stand off between Talk Talk, their security and INXS and the Marillos.
Lots of shouting and threatening, handbags at dawn and all that. Good old fashioned schoolboy stuff! :D It was defused by their security who put them all to bed.
We phoned their rooms throughout the night like the drunk children we were.
They were terrified :D

I don't count that as a real indicator of what they were like as people.
We all have our moments ;)

I guess being abusive is one way to insist upon yer privacy...
Seriously, though, past the boorishness and bad behaviour road tours seem to bring out, when I listen to Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock my soul does cartwheels, and my spiritual "tell" or "spark", chills travelling up the shin over the knee to the thigh, lets me know that reaching beyond the aural wonder is akin to attempting to tickle God under the chin.

midlife changes

I like to think that the time I spend recovering, and researching, is a gift to teach me how to detect subtle energy changes and to correct them before I require a doctor's "treat the symptom" or invasive treatments.

As I read, I encountered discussions of the following midlife phenomena: hormonal changes (which peers are treating either through exercise, herbs, or doctor's prescriptions), copper toxicity, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, midsection fat gain or adipose accumulation, Candida Albicans, and metabolic syndrome.

Dietary changes and acupuncture have been restorative, and daily recitation of the Rosary during Lent has been a real godsend, as I move into reconnection with people, and new connections. I learn more about what saps my energy and how to limit it, if not get rid of it completely. I have learned that protein snacks and mini-meals 3-5 times a day with unlimited vegetables, and extreme limitations on sugar, grains and fruit are good for me. I am currently off caffeine, with the exception of a demitasse I allowed myself for giving canned and boxed food to the local food bank that experienced a 37% increase in demand, but 12% increase in supply.

I'm happy that my menstrual cycle has gone off course for the third cycle in a row: this is a sign of progesterone deficiency, and I now know how to correct it. I am happy that glaucoma symptoms can be lessened with Vitamin C: I can take more of Vitamin C for a synergistic, improved absorption effect with iron; Vitamin C, with Vitamins A and E are effective anti-oxidants which protect against cancer. It's as if my intuitive body is helping me avoid cancer.

It's helpful, in a sad way, to have lost immediate blood relatives to cancer: the hurt and fear energies can be transformed and channeled into self-preservation modalities: diet, exercise, household "greening" and detoxifying, inner work. It is my prayer that my relatives who have survived their bouts with cancer learn what works for them and incorporate their energy-giving modalities in their lifestyles on a daily basis.

way downtown, copper toxicity

I read an article by Dr. L Wilson in the Wild Traditions journal about Copper Toxicity. I'm thinking if I can heal myself from whatever it is that's eating my energy I'll be able to heal others. Only I don't think others have had the accumulation of stress I have had. Maybe they're better able to self-medicate, maybe the disturbances, and accumulated toxins, instead of surfacing in immediate distress, go into tissues or cells, waiting to come out at a hormonally appropriate moment. Maybe they have more regular practice of exercise, prayer and meditation.

Here's what I've done so far: cut out caffeine, sugar, wheat, alcohol. Reduced dairy intake to butter and yogurt.

Bible Verse: 1 Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.

Watching "WayDowntown" by Gary Burns. It takes place in Calgary, and the soundtrack has "Downtown" en français.