When Men's hearts Change the World Will Know Peace.

No, I'm that is not a quote found from a citizen of the past, who would mean to include women today. No, I meant it how I wrote it:

When men's hearts change, the world will know peace.

I think that women are already fully equipped with the power to know love. It is natural within us to care for the world: the animals, plants, and men and children in it.

Without the soft demeanor women inhabit, men wouldn't know what to do with their lives.

We give them direction as to where to direct their energies.

In true love, peace on earth is known.

When men do not value women the way a women values the earth and its children, the world is torn apart. For, men have a different kind of power. Rather than the all encompassing power for life and beauty in women, men have a brutal kind: they have the force with which they can do whatever they want, really.

So what holds them back from going crazy*?

I use the word crazy, but I don't necessarily mean psychotic. I mean negative or bad, harmful or hurtful to others.

Well there are two answers:

1) It goes back to the direction women give them. A mother's love keeps a son in line. In an elusive manner the soft power of women keeps a hold on the boy in a way he often will never realize. (Women, are the power of life: the source, the vessel, the reason).

And, when the boys love is directed by another woman's it is her energetic pull and promise of life that keeps him "tied-down" or "in-line" or from doing bad things. (Or it may just be the reminder of his mother's love, which does this).

2) In a second instance, the love wasn't there, and couldn't be found in another. There are no restraints strong enough, or meaningful enough. The woman may be so out of touch with her own power that she has no effect on a man. These loveless men are the rapists, the murderers, and the men who enjoy warfare. They do not respect the feminine and instead desire to direct their power against each other or upon other women they do not understand.

Power is a powerful thing.

I recently read an article, which described a type of vegan crusader and outlined some of his views. It was very informative at parts. The man explained that when people began to eat meat, wars simultaneously arose. The Sanskrit word for war comes from a word that means "I want to take your cow." And the eating of meat and the wars were evolving in efforts to control the feminine. He says that in the practice of eating and producing meat products men have been manipulating the female animal's uteri. The baby animals are eaten as a delicacy, the fetus of chickens are a staple and the more animals born the more meat.

It's really interesting. Reminds me of abortion. Some women are out of touch with their femininity as I said before and are against it as well. But, the laws that re being argued over should really have no place in government. The female body is sacred and it is important to respect and most importantly it is hers. How can men feel that they can control the woman's body? It's the same concept as rape, really. It's due to the lack of honest love for or from men's mothers.

Diary Entry

I feel like writing, so here I am doing what I feel. I don't have anything particularly striking to jot down right now. I want to let it flow and see what comes. I guess I'll start by talking about what's been running through me lately. What have I been doing.

Well, today I went to my internship. I drove to the Rockridge area, to part and take the bus into Berkeley, which would be more efficient I have been told. I'm starting to figure my way around this enormous place called the East Bay. It's getting more familiar, but I still don't even know the right exits to take. I just go in the general area and then figure it out....? I don't know why I do this. I guess I like to feel that I know where I am, and feel that I have it figured out, when in reality I only half know the ins and outs of this area. Anyway, I parked and then I went to the store, and bought something that I needed.

In retrospect, I feel so foreign. I'm not sure whether or not I should smile at people. I don't understand why we are supposed to ignore each other, but almost everyone acts like it. And, when I want to smile I think about maybe I am giving off the wrong message, especially to men, because smiling is so foreign to everyone.

Maybe this is why I feel foreign, because I feel good about life, and a lot of other's do not show it. Or our society does not encourage it. We are supposed to be stressed, because our society tells us that life is about getting money! And, getting money is stressful. For me it is that's for sure. Life is not a business, jeeez.

Things are just the way they are, and there is no way around it.

I'm realizing more and more that life is about constantly trying to be comfortable in any given situation. Life is a constant struggle. It is only natural. All animals on earth are constantly fighting for their lives, running for their food, and caring for their families. This is the way it is. So as a human race we must constantly find comfort in our own struggles. If not we become crazy, stressed out, or depressed. Our brains let us figure out the puzzles of the struggle. It's like a maze we've created for ourselves and each other. Yet, we have to do it.

Somewhere, on a documentary about emotions I think, I heard that we need conflict in our lives. This resonated with me. If we do, then we do. And, if we have it so prevalently, then we must need it. I believe that. If we felt that everything was truly perfect all the time, why would we clean our houses or build new buildings? Why would we create without an ounce of conflict, which compels that creation within us?

If the Big Bang occurred, that would have been a harsh convergence of elements, not a gentle melting of them. The earth created mountains when plates of the crust crashed into each other. These are somewhat violent occurrences, which have made our planet.

Conflict is necessary, so we should not be afraid from it, but run deeply into it and understand that it holds the same beauty as love.

Haven't you heard that there is a thin line between love and hate? It's true I've felt it. The conflict and the struggle is like the other side of the yin, which is love and kindness.

Duality.

Isn't it interesting how I could keep writing until I've come to the same point? It's constantly like this. There is so much that we exist with down here on earth, but when our higher minds begin to think about all this stuff, and process it a bit, it begins to become less and less stuff, ending ultimately in a point. This is the same point, which one will always end up at. The conclusion that points up to the sky to the wonder, to the questions of life.

The Haves vs. The Have Nots

"The world's most primitive people have few possessions, but they are not poor. Poverty is not a certain amount of goods, nor is it just a relation between means and ends; above all it is relation between people. Poverty is a social status. As such it is the invention of civilization."

-Marshall Sahlins, Anthropologist.

Medicinal Herbs: Showy Milkweed

I found this plant yesterday and fell very attached to it. The flowers are a beautiful lavender color, and are rubbery rather than thin an delicate. It's a tall plant with ball forms of clustered small flowers. It's called Showy Milkweed and here is it's traditional usage:

Edibility:

Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) was boiled and eaten as a vegetable in the mid-west and eastern regions by indigenous tribes of America. The flowers, stems, and leaves were also eaten raw, while the buds were often boiled for soups with meat. Almost all tribes of America were recorded as using the sap as a chewing gum, by boiling it down to a sticky substance and adding salmon or deer fat.

Medicinally:

Showy Milkweed sap was used as a cleaning or healing agent for cuts, sores, warts, or ringworm. The silky hairs would be burned away from the seeds, then ground down into a salve for sores. The seeds would be boiled in a small amount of liquid, which would be applied to soak rattlesnake bites and draw out the poison. Tea made from the roots was to aid in alleviating a measles rash, or curing a cough, or even cure rheumatism when applied like a wash. When the root was mashed with some liquid it could reduce swelling.

Interestingly:

Tribes would use the fibers of the plant's stalk for weaving ropes and cloth. By extracting the fibers from dried stalks via a whacking method, the fibers were twisted together to form cord. This cord also formed nets and traditional ceremonial garb.

Here's the beautiful plant:

WORLD CULTURE

"Culture: the totality of what is communicated by one generation of a people to another by means of language and example."

- Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization

I'm in the midst of reading this book right now, and this morning I was caught by this quote. It's an interesting thought to turn around in the head. I began to desire deducing what my culture is. What is it that was brought down through my parents generation into me? Quinn says that it is what survives via " language and example."

In terms of language, it's obvious that English is the language of my culture. Yet, more specifically, my parents spoke with a proper, educated type of English with California accents. Some people learn to speak in slang, or with mixed languages, or with accents from their region. I was brought up speaking an educated English without slang, which reflects my parent's backgrounds and thus mine as well.

I am sure I was taught just about all my fundamental life skills through example. I learned how to use a conventional oven, microwave, freezer, refrigerator, stove-top, and knife to prepare food. I also was taught how to think about what I eat, and to choose healthier options rather than what was simply available at the store. I was taught how to play various sports, and that I should stick with things. I learned that school was important, and drugs were bad. I learned a lot of social skills through my parents that make me who I am today.

And, I realize that a lot of kids grow up learning different skills from their parents. Some parents are not educated and teach their children to speak in slang that doesn't work in a professional atmosphere. Some children are taught to never question the foods they can buy at the liquor stores, which are unhealthy for them. The social skills people inhabit are handed down through their parents. When seeing this phenomenon through an anthropological lens it's not really a case of good parenting versus bad. That's more of a social opinion made later on an independent or collective level. In reality, the culture we inhabit from our parents is vastly different in America from town to town, city to city, and region to region. Some traits vary from family to family within any specific community. American culture is much more mixed up than other culture's which are more grounded by their centuries of history. Who we become via cultural skills, handed down from our parents' generation to ours, is just that - who we are and nothing more. I think we choose friends and lovers in conjunction with those traits, we have learned, which we value. Or maybe we are attracted to others who've learned more attractive or better traits.

Thus, cultures are in constant flux, especially in Western societies. There is no real set culture anymore. We try to preserve the cultural codes of other groups, but they aren't really surviving in the pure essences that we enjoy anymore. Nowadays our world culture is full of variety. The question is whether we will create a cohesive world culture, now that we are in affect a world culture. Can we polish it, with a collective set of values?

Skeptical of Skeptics: The Power of Belief

I watched two videos on TED.com the other day, which were very interesting. Each was a fifteen minute talk given by two well renowned skeptics working in America. Michael Shermer publishes Skeptic Magazine. He debunks many superstitions, occult beliefs, and the supernatural. His angle is out to prove that we make ourselves believe in certain things which are not true.

James Randi is an older man, whois mainly passionate about psychic fraud in his speech. He feels that these people who claim they have contact with the dead and the ability to uncover hidden facts are magicians. They have the tools and the knowledge of how to deceive their audience. And, they do this at a high financial and emotional cost to their customers. His foundation offers support to "ruined" psychic customers and a million dollar prize to a psychic who can prove their ability.

As someone interested in the spiritual, supernatural, and the like I was interested in hearing these men's point of views. I felt that an element of my disbelief was cemented for good, especially when Shermer played the clip of Led Zeppelin backwards asking for us to hear the specific Satanic lyrics.

I was at a lecture for one of my college courses in the occult. A guest speaker was explaining how she talks with the deceased through a special technology invented not too long ago in Europe. She records an empty room, or a silent space and then plays it over a chopped up bit of random audio taken from a TV commercial for example. Then, she'll listen to the audio segments, which are put in random order, with the recorded blank space over it. She first played us some of the clips she'd found, to which I heard just mangled sounds. Then she asked us to listen for the sentence she had deduced, and played it again.

"Oh ok, I can kind of hear that, ...I guess," I thought skeptically.

It wasn't obvious at first, but she found what she was looking for. Why? Because she wanted to, and her desire and belief were strong enough to find something meaningful in the garbage and come and lecture to us about it.

Not to be judgmental though, because although her "speaking with the dead" machine was unconvincing to me, I do have some strange beliefs of my own.

Randi and Shermer are skeptical to the core of their beings. They deal with the cold hard facts of life: the tangible, the seen, and the obvious. If something can't be proved under these headlines they aren't viable. Those are their beliefs, and the power of belief is most powerful. Their point of view is more scientific than anything. They need the problem to work over and over again to be true, and most of what they oppose does not work in this way. The power of belief works for them in conjunction with tangible objects and facts. Is it fair to say that psychics etc. are choosing to believe in something unseen, and this extreme opposition disturbs the skeptics?

I'd like to take the section of Randi and the homeopathic pills as an example. He swallows the entire bottle, and still he doesn't falter at all during his talk. He seems to rob the homeopathic industry of legitimacy. It's not a very thorough investigation into it though. This part caused me to pause and think for a minute. I am one who chooses to believe in the power of medicinal herbs. And the power of belief is extremely strong for the human mind. It is the most important element to our lives I feel I can say with almost one hundred percent certainty. Let me argue with the case of placebos standing on my sideline. We've all heard this one: in experiments a doctor will administer a placebo sugar pill, and the actual medicine to two patients within a study. In the end result, both patients say they feel an affect. This is the power of belief in action.

So, in conclusion, there are scientific elements as well as spiritual elements to our world. Both are extremely powerful to our societies nowadays. In some cultures, even when the two contradict each other no one blinks an eye, because both are so real and hold so much clout to the people of that society.

The power of belief people, don't you forget it.

The Banana Leaf Parable by Charles Eames ( American Designer )

There's sort of a parable I'd like to . . . In India . . . I guess it's a parable: In India, sort of the lowest, the poorest, the, those, those without and the lowest in caste, eat very often--particularly in southern India--they eat off of a banana leaf. And those a little bit up the scale, eat off of a sort of a un . . . a low-fired ceramic dish.

And a little bit higher, why, they have a glaze on--a thing they call a "tali"--they use a banana leaf and then the ceramic as a tali upon which they put all the food. And there get to be some fairly elegant glazed talis, but it graduates to--if you're up the scale a little bit more--why, a brass tali, and a bell-bronze tali is absolutely marvelous, it has a sort of a ring to it.

And then things get to be a little questionable. There are things like silver-plated talis and there are solid silver talis and I suppose some nut has had a gold tali that he's eaten off of, but I've never seen one.

But you can go beyond that and the guys that have not only means, but a certain amount of knowledge and understanding, go the next step and they eat off of a banana leaf.

And I think that in these times when we fall back and regroup, that somehow or other, the banana leaf parable sort of got to get working there, because I'm not prepared to say that the banana leaf that one eats off of is the same as the other eats off of, but it's that process that has happened within the man that changes the banana leaf.

And as we attack these problems--and I hope and I expect that the total amount of energy used in this world is going to go from high to medium to a little bit lower--the banana leaf idea might have a great part in it.