Insight, Meditations and Reflections

 

The self is assaulted everywhere in America. Commercials for cars, beauty and insurance products, medications and a million items flood radio, television, the print media and billboards. This resembles a market scene in Lagos or Onitsha in Nigeria where traders mill around cars caught in busy traffic. They sing the benefits of their products and beg passengers to buy them. This can be deafening and infuriating.

In addition to these commercial messages that are everywhere like bees in a garden in bloom fierce ideological battles are fought in the theater of the minds of Americans. In subtle ways, newspapers, magazines, and books shock and terrorize the human spirit. Video games and movies numb and dumb the soul, changing the way Americans feel about ourselves, about others and the world.

As I prepare for the 4th of July celebrations I wonder about the state of the American soul. What do you do to be sane in this cacophony of ideas?  

 

Find out more:
Hooked Image Courtesy Ms. Magazine
The Secret Sales Pitch: An Overview of Subliminal Advertising (Paperback)
by August Bullock
Can't buy my love How Advertising Changes The Way We Think and Feel
by Jean Kilbourne

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 James Carville and Mary Matalin with their two daughters. Courtesy Achitectural Digest

Bi-partisan couple James Carville and Mary Matalin symbolizes the best of what America can be.  James Carville is a political consultant, actor, and author. Nicknamed Ragin Cajun, Mr Carville helped Bill Clinton to become President. 

Mary Matalin is a political strategist and author. Ms. Matalin was Assistant to President George W. Bush and Counselor to the Vice President, Dick Cheney. She resigned at the end of 2002. she is now in the private sector.

The couple has appeared on Meet The Press, as hosts of CNN Crossfire, at the International Builders Show, graduation ceremonies and countless political events.

Their political views are different: Carville is a liberal. Matalin is a conservative. This has not stopped them from being married for fourteen years. They now have two duagters.

Some people believe they are insincere because they think that Carville and Matalin are simply acting when they air their political opinions in the media. I disagree.

They may be an unusual couple yet their marriage enables Americans to imagine how far we can live together without agreeing completely with one another.

As we prepare to celebrate July 4th, do you know family members or friends who disagree but still stick together? Have you seen people with different backgrounds united by a greater cause? Use the comment box to share your observations about disagreements in the absence of malice. These are examples of what E Pluribus Unum is all about. Won't you agree? 

Office of James Carville
Office of Mary Matalin
James Carville Filmography
Mary Matalin Filmography
Architectural Digest: Mary Matalin & James Carville Opposing Views Unite in a Bold Design Vision Near the Capital
"Political odd couple takes stage at Tulane graduation"
James Carville
Mary Matalin
Mary Matalin's Resignation Press Release

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My goal for this series has been to encourage you to identify your most important goal so you can pursue it with your whole heart.

I was not writing for just you. I was writing to myself as well.  Ivan Ilych's question: "What if my whole life has been wrong?" has been haunting me lately. Writing these thoughts has been a way to get clear on where I need to put my attention at this time in my life.

Like everyone else, the need to attract resources to take care of my immediate and extended families is on my mind. Like everyone else, I wish that success crowns my hardwork and dedication. I wish to be rewarded for what I do. Yet, nothing compares to my desire to find out the why  and what-for I am on this earth in the first place.

I have put here for you what life seems to be about -- a Damon and Pythias like friendship with a mysterious part of ourselves that we often ignore. 

Words of sages such as these: "The Kingdom of God is within you,"  "Nirvana" "Whosoever comprehends the truth will see the Blessed One" point to this inner reality. When we become friends with this apparent Inner Guide, when we enter this Inner World, we will have access to everything we need in all the other areas of our lives.

I have not been committed to this goal with as much determination as I would have liked. I have not made this commitment to this ultimate good the priority of my life. What I am hoping is that writing this will assist me to strengthen my resolve for friendship with this Infinite Wisdom within me. I hope that it will assist you to do the samel.

I have not suggested any method or ways of doing this. This is because there are many powerful and equally valid ways. When you choose any spiritual path, just stay with it. There is so much in Christian Spirituality when you persist. You will arrive at the same truth that Sufi, Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu, Native and other world traditions have discovered. Whichever path you are on now, keep your focus on itt. You will experience the truth of the mystery within: yoga practices as well as Taoism, Hawaian spirituality or other Shamanic practices of the world. Just find what you resonate with and stick with it.

My goal is to encourage us to continue on whichever path we have chosen. The success stories of Jack Schwarz, John Chang and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross are just a little drop in the ocean of millions of people whose lives show that there is indeed something extraordinary about the human species of which you and I are a part. We must devote some time to explore this for ourselves. This self-exploration is ultimately what life is all about.

Every day we hear about natural disasters on CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CBC and on other networks: accidents, earthquakes, floods, shipwrecks, fires burning, evacuations and war. As I write this a Philippine passenger ferry, the MV Princess of Stars, capsized during a typhoon with more than 700 people on board. The day before drag racer Scott Kalitta died after his Funny Car crashed and exploded in flames.

The line between the living and the dead thins as we grow old. Everything seems to be spinning out of control: "Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism," ALAN FRAM and EILEEN PUTMAN, two Associated Press Writers tell us.

This is the time to echo Joseph Campbell's question: "When disaster strikes, when you meet with a grave calamity, what is it that supports you and carries you through? Do you have anything that supports and carries you through? Or does that which you thought was your support now fail you?"

Go within to find support from the Infinite Power that is always there. This is one of many ways to deal with the seeming falling apart of everything around. I hope I got your attention. Be prepared. Above all keep calm and carry on.

If you want to share your ideas and comments about this series, use the comment's box below.

Everything seemingly is spinning out of control

Keep calm and carry on poster

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On this first day of summer or summer solstice and the longest day of the year, I reflect on the spiritual testimony of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, one of the great souls of the past century. She is the third example of people who have discovered the Sacred Fire within. She tells the story of her experience at the Monroe Institute which trains people to connect with their Sacred Fire, the mystery within. 

At the start of the program, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross felt all the horrors of every death she had witnessed. Gradually she developed faith in God and in herself. Then she discovered that she left her physical body as she saw herself as energy.

“I realized that I had left my physical body and become energy. Then in front of me, I saw many incredibly beautiful lotus blossoms. These blossoms opened very slowly and became brighter, more colorful and more exquisite, and as time passed they turned into one breathtaking and enormous lotus blossom. From behind the flower, I noticed a light—brighter
I knew I had to make it through this giant flower and eventually merge with the light. …
My vision, which extended for miles and miles, caused me to see everything, from a blade of grass to a wooden door, in its natural molecular structure, its vibration. I observed, with great awe and respect, that everything had a life, a divinity. All the while, I continued to move slowly through the lotus flower, toward the light. Finally, I was merged with it, one with warmth and love. A million everlasting orgasms cannot describe the sensation of love, warmth and sense of welcome that I experienced….”

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross described herself as "an ordinary woman" when it comes to spirituality. She never did regular meditations and she never had a guru. But her whole life was one of service and dedication to the welfare of the dying. Service to others and the wisdom and resources of the Monroe Institue assisted her in contacting her Inner Power.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Website
The Monroe Institue

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This series will be incomplete without mentioning someone who has a visible mastery of The Sacred Fire, the concept that has been the unifying metaphor for these reflections.

In 2000 a former Greek engineer for General Dynamics Kosta Danaos wrote The Magus of Java: Teachings of an Authentic Taoist Immortal. In it he described his meetings with John Chang who was featured as Dynamo Jack in the Blair Brothers' 1988 documentary The Ring of Fire: East of Krakatoa.

In the movie we see John Chang the Taoist master, burn a crampled newspaper. He placed his hands over the paper. After a few minutes we see the paper turn into flames.

Kosta Damos became a pupil of John Chang. The Magus of Java is about his encounter with this sage of he wrote: " he has amazing preternatural abilities: telekinesis, pyrogenesis, ectrogenesis, telepathy, levitation, remote viewing, even astral projection...Thousands of people have witnessed him do these things..."

John Chang is another example of an individual who has developed this friendship with the Sacred Fire within.

Visit this site to watch John Chang in action

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As summer solstice draws near, I plan to end this series. This is the time of year that we celebrate the power of the unconquerable sun, the greater fire from which our little flames are sparks.

In my earlier posts I made the suggestion that our goal as human beings should in some way be linked with an awareness that a power beyond the physical body is the bedrock of our lives.

To be meaningful, life must be seen as part of a Greater Mystery. The relationship between the conscious mind and this Presence I have called the Sacred Fire metaphorically is one of unconditional love and absolute trustworthiness.

I have shown that our insights and inventions arise when we connect with this source.

In the next postings I give three examples of individuals who have persisted in honoring this friendship and what it did in their lives. Here is the first example:

During the Holocaust, Nazi soldiers grilled a seventeen-year-old Dutchman. When Jack Schwarz failed to reveal secrets about his two-year-involvement with the resistance movement, the soldiers whipped him with steel-hook-equipped cat-o--nine-tails. Then Jack sprawled on the ground, swimming in the pool of his own blood. He moved his head and looking into the torturers eyes said: "Ich liebe dich," I love you.

Surprised the Nazi tormentor decided to cover Jack with his shirt. The German noticed that the wounds were healing right before his eyes. The bleeding had stopped.

Jack Schwarz would come to the United States of America where he was the subject of many scientific studies. The photo above was taken at the Menninger Foundation, in the Research Unit of Dr. Elmer Green, in Topeka, Kansas. Jack Schwarz was demonstrating the power of the mind over the body on a bed of nails.

It was Jack Schwarz, more than anybody else, who showed convincingly under laboratory conditions that the human mind can control the body's response. But Jack was able to do this after practising yoga and reading Eastern scriptures extensively.

He showed the world that "All of your body is in your mind, but not all of your mind is in your body."

Wikipedia on Jack Schwarz

Mind over Matter

Aletheia Psycho-Physical Foundation

 

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This week Honda brought out its first fuel-cell car, the FCX Clarity. Fuel-cell vehicles do not use fossil fuels. They give out water. Fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide--a gas some believe is not good for the earth in the long run. Honda may be mass producing fuel-cell cars in the future. This is a glimmer of hope for the world.

How does this fit in with the series on Perseverance on this blog?

A few days ago, I wrote about the friendship of Damon and Pythias. I said it was a metaphor for the relationship that can exist between our ordinary waking consciousness and the Sacred Fire, the bedrock of our existence. The ideal relationship between these apparent two components of our being is one of trust and unconditional love.

In other words, when we are able to recognize that we have a totally trustworthy invisible ally, then our responses to our problems as individuals and as a race will change. No matter what happens around us, in us, or to us, we know that all is well.

Today, many people are concerned about the future of the world. They are worried about peak oil. They fear that if people do not change their consumption patterns terrible things will happen.
While these concerns are legitimate, we can choose a different response. I believe that we can trust human ingenuity. We can trust that when we reach a critical point, the deep instinct for survival of all the living will work together across cultures to avert any man-made world destruction.

While Honda's FCX Clarity is a purely business venture, it offers the world the hope to imagine a different future. We can imagine a world where fossil fuels are used to the barest minimum, if not phased out completely. We can envision a world where every car emits zero carbon dioxide. We can imagine the predominant use of cleaner forms of energy. This is only possible if we collectively trust that the world has an invisible ally that assists us in times of need. This invisible ally may in its simplest form be a self-regulating, self-sustaining process. 

It is the same invisible hand that taught our ancestors how to use language. It taught them to use fire, stone and move heavy things on wheels. It is the same invisible friend that inspired the farmers along the Tigris and Euphrates as well as the Nile valleys. We can assume that a Damon-Pythias-like friendship exists between humanity and the forces that keep the world going coming to its aid in time of need. From the invention of the scientific method, the Internet, to the discovery of super-Earth planets, it is safe to trust that human beings as a species have the capacity to solve their existential problems.

Honda's FCX Clarity is the tip of an iceberg of great things to come.

Read about it at Honda's website
The Car Connection on the FCX Clarity Road Test
First Drive: 2009 Honda FCX Clarity on YouTube
Honda Makes First Hydrogen Cars on BBC

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Father's Day food for thought.  A father's words to his son: “Friendship is a precious gift that can’t be bought or sold. It’s value is greater than mountains made of gold. If you shall ask God for a gift be thankful if he sends not diamonds pearls or riches but the love and trust of friends.”

 

The Friendship of Damon and Pythias Retold

The King Dionysius I stared into the young man’s eyes. “Damon, you’re naïve and too trusting.”

“Your Majesty, Pythias and I have been friends from childhood.” Damon said. “When we were very young we made a pact to keep our words, no matter the circumstances.” Damon wiped the tears dripping down his cheeks, red with fear.

The king’s men and the executioners stood by, waiting for the deadline.

“Well,” said the King. “Pythias, your friend, accused me in his public speeches of tyranny. He was tried and found guilty of sedition. He deserved death. No one can sow dissention in my kingdom without paying the price. But he pleaded to visit his family across the sea one last time to put his affairs in order before dying. He wanted to say goodbye to his family. You agreed to be held here until he returns."

“Yes, my lord, I did. I still pledge to receive the death penalty on his behalf if he is unable to make it back here before the appointed time.”

“He isn't here. We've waited for him for three days now.”

“Pythias, my lord, is an honorable man. I know that he isn’t here because of circumstances beyond his power.”

The king then ordered the executioners to execute Damon, the innocent friend.

As they were getting ready, Pythias arrived. He was out of breath. His hair was scattered. He Bruises covered his body. He was dripping with blood and water.

The king and his men were astonished.

Pythias spoke with difficulty. “Thank you, Damon, for trusting me. Through your kindness I was able to set my affairs at home in order. As we were sailing back, pirates attacked our ship. They threw me into the water. I swam to the shore and was able to make it here alive to keep my word.”

The king was moved by the friendship of Damon and Pythias. He pardoned Pythias and made the two friends his most trusted advisors.

In the sixth installment in the series, we saw that nurturing the Sacred Fire is the primary goal of life. Unfortunately, most of us ignore the needs of our Inner Sacred Fire. Many of us have no relationship with that Inner presence.

The bond of trust between our waking consciousness and the Sacred Fire within must be as strong as the friendship of Damon and Pythias. When our awareness builds this unwavering trust we begin to experience a dimension that more and more people are discovering. What experiences point to a trusting relationship of the self and the Inner Presence?

The Friendhsip of Damon and Pythias

 

 

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Business transactions that may be lost on a Friday 13th are estimated to be about a billion US dollars. More than 20 million Americans are likely to not move into a new home, sign legal documents or meet a business partner for the first time on such an ill-fated day. An unusual number of workers is likely to call in sick. Few people wed on this day. Most high rise buildings have no 13th floor.

This irrational fear is anchored in a deep part of our mind. Jack Tresidder writes: 

In many traditions 13 was considered unlucky, possibly because early lunar-based calenders needed the intercalation of a 13th "month", thought to be unfavourable; advice not to sow on the 13th of any month goes back at least to Hesoid (8th century BCE); Satan was the "13th figure" at witch's rites. In the Tarot, Death is the 13th card of the major arcana. In Central America, 13 was sacred (13-day weeks in the religious calendar).

But there is a best kept secret that reveals how you can make your fear go away. Jan Frazier, the author of "When Fear Falls Away" found out that she could overcome her fear of cancer. 

It's like I want to say, What?!  It's been this way all along?  You mean, I could have lived my whole life this way, spared myself all that pointless anguish?  God, I swear, this is the best kept secret.  Everybody can do it.  I know this.  I could have done it all my life.  The ruby slippers thing:  all along it is right beside you, accessible as breath.

Happy Friday 13th.Jack Tresidder's quote:Complete Dictionary of Symbols, p.346.

When Fear Falls Away 

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Early this month, fire burned down buildings at Universal Studios film and TV studio in Los Angeles.

Today, fire is ravaging the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve on Martin Road in California. 1,400 residents have been told to evacuate while about 1,000 homes are threatened. Fire is burning in Humbolt, Ophir, Escondido Campground area and Jackson in California. At the end of this summer there will be wildfires in many parts of the country. Thousands of acres of vegetation will be gutted. Property worth billions of dollars will be lost in the infernos. Fire as a metaphor thus can bring to mind loss, suffering, and destruction.

But fire has positive connotations as well. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was in 1528 the treasurer of a team of three hundred Spaniards who arrived in Florida. Their mission: Conquer and govern the surrounding lands. Of these sailors, only Cabeza de Vaca and three others survived a shipwreck. They would wander in the southern parts of US for more than seven years before they found their way back to Mexico City.

One day, Cabeza de Vaca strolled far away from his colleagues. He got lost. As he struggled to find his bearings, he found a burning tree beside which he spent the cold night. In the morning he carried with him dry wood and held two burning sticks. With the fuel and fire, he walked for five days. On the sixth night he found his compatriots. For  Cabeza de Vaca fire symbolized life and hope.

The image of a flaming torch brings to mind the empowering symbol of the Olympic Games. The Olympic Torch relay reminds us of Prometheus, who, defying the god Zeus, stole fire from Zeus and gave it to our ancestors. The blazing torch is thus the symbol for freedom.

Heraclites, the Greek philosopher, believed that fire was an agent of transformation and the symbol of perpetual change.

 Zoroastrians represent the presence of God through fire. They believe that the individual soul is a divine spark. Chinese and Egyptian rites linked fire to the sun, associating it with life and health. For them, fire is a symbol of sexual and spiritual power of fertility and life.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Creator appeared to Moses through a brush of fire in which the fire burned without consuming the bush. For Christians, a burning candle in the tabernacle symbolized Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Fire has been a powerful force in Hawaiian culture and mysticism. And Pele, the goddess of volcanic fire, is most revered.

Fire symbolizes life, transformation, spiritual power, the invisible sacred fire that burns without consuming. The goal of life beyond wealth, fame and power, concerns nurturing this sacred fire. This fire, then, becomes the power behind the scenes imparting a magical quality to all our other pursuits. To come to that realization demands courage and the determination to never submit to anything that hinders its steady burning.

Photo credit: Awreness
Fire Tracking Website: W.I.S.E. Fire Tracking

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What then, is that primary goal that should concern us? Is it wealth? Great Depressions warn us about the fragility of the world's financial systems. The economy is an emotionally unstable mother whose moods swing like a see-saw. When she is happy she makes the family feel great.  When she is depressed, she drains all the joy away.

George Mehales was a Greek immigrant who lived in South Carolina in 1929. At the beginning of October of that fateful year he felt prosperous. But at the end of the month he lost everything. "The first day of October in 1929 made me feel like I was rich... (then,)  I was wiped out...I had nothing left." (Library of Congress, America’s Library)

 

George Mehales was one of millions of the people who lost everything they had worked for during the Great Depression. Countless others have seen their fortunes reversed through war, natural disasters, and other calamities. If amassing wealth becomes all that we live for then it can blind us to other equally important values of society. Remember ENRON and the BAYOU hedge funds.

Is it political power? That too is ephemeral. The kings of yesterday have ceded their symbols of power to the victors of today who will surrender their mandates to the rulers of tomorrow.

And acclaim? Like the sunflower, fame flourishes with the sunrise of public praise, drooping at sunset into the darkness of forgetfulness. What has made some famous today will be contested tomorrow. Scientific theories on which careers are being built now will give way to discoveries that show the objective futility of some lives. The extraordinary claim of yesterday is the child's play of today.

The apparently futile endeavor is necessary within the big scheme of things. The quest for wealth, power, and fame are useful. Without them the world we live in is unimaginable. But their quest cannot be the primary goal of life. We must subordinate the seeking of these ends to the imperative of the primary goal. This goal is the carrying of the “flame of freedom,” the subject of the remaining installments in the series.

[ Photo: © Titania1980 | Dreamstime.com ]

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"Monarch Emerging From Chrysalis © Goran Kapor | Dreamstime.com"

More than twenty years ago, I wrote a poem called "The Pregnant Man." The metaphor surprised me but I loved it. Now, there is a real pregnant man, who was on Oprah early this year. A baby girl is due soon. Here is the poem.

The pregnant man

I am a pregnant man
Curled up inside
Laboring day to day
To set myself free
From the narrow world of my womb
From the world that covers me.

I am a chrysalis
Struggling second after second
To set myself free
And move about unrestricted
A butterfly in the air.

I am a bird in a cage
Groping night in, night out
To find that gate
That at last shall set me free

To fly over land and sea.
I am a pregnant man
Curled up inside
Fighting day to day
To set myself free.

© Kwami E. Nyamidie

If you want to read about the real Pregnant Man Thomas Beatie and see the show and tell photos turn your browser to Queerty: http://www.queerty.com/pregnant-man-four-weeks-left-20080609/

Oprah says "It's a miracle."

On Oprah 

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A reader commented on my blog: "In all seriousness, maybe picking the goal is the greater battle."
In world sacred writings, life on earth is seen as a fierce battle.

In the Hymn of the Blessed One or  the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu sacred book, we read of the great battle in which Prince Arjuna goes to battle with his own relatives, friends and teachers. Krishna teaches him the art of war and victory. In this scripture the battlefield is an allegory in which the soul, Arjuna, representing what is most sacred in man, sets out to fight evil.

To say that choosing the goal is ife's greatest battle rings true. If we fail to select a worthwhile life goal towards which we channel our energies then on our dying bed we will be like Leo Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich who, at age 45, member of the court, died while asking himself: "What if my whole life has been wrong?"

Under the twilight zone of clarity between life and death Ivan Ilych thought  to himself:

It occurred to him that what had appeared perfectly impossible before, namely that he had not spent his life as he should have done, might after all be true. It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false. And his professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life and of his family, and all his social and official interests, might all have been false. He tried to defend all those things to himself and suddenly felt the weakness of what he was defending. There was nothing to defend.

What then, is that one supreme goal that should concern the living? Should it be a desire to change the world? Or amassing wealth and guaranteeing that our children's children are well cared for when we are gone? Should it be a pursuit of fame, the wielding of power over others? Is there an ultimate goal of life that everyone can pursue?

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It was at the symbolic National Building Museum in Washington, DC, the first Saturday of June 2008. After 16 months of campaigning and winning more than 18 million votes in the primaries, Hilary R. Clinton, the Senator from New York, delivered a speech that signaled her bowing out of the presidential campaign.

Barack Obama, the Senator from Illinois, in the elections of the previous Tuesday, had received 2158 delegates, effectively winning the nomination. Former first lady Hilary Clinton went down in history as the first woman who had a serious chance to become the President of the United States. She did very well with 1926 delegates. In her gracious and memorable concession speech, she spoke about not looking back.

"I want to say to my supporters, when you hear people saying – or think to yourself – “if only” or “what if,” I say, “please don’t go there.” Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward. Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been."

This brings to mind the many rituals from different parts of the world involving ceremonies and the symbolic act of not turning back.

The Kikuyu of East Africa, for example, believe that evil spirits cause epidemics. To fight illness the elders blow war horns at night when the moon is up. Members of the community rush out with sticks, clubs and wooden weapons. They shout and sing. They beat the grass, shrubs and trees with their weapons. Then they hurry to the river where they throw their weapons and shake off all traces of evil spirits on their clothes into the running water. On their way home the villagers sing joyful songs of victory.
 
They never look back.

In Angola and Mozambique, soldiers returning from war go through a ritual cleansing at the river. A healer washes veterans with magical leaves. When  ex-soldiers get out of the water to go home, they are forbidden to look back.

Among the Dinkas, a pastoral tribe who live on the basin of the White Nile, each family owns a sacred cow. When the people feel threatened by war, drought or plague, the village elders ask a particular clan to offer their sacred cow as scapegoat.

After escorting the sacred cow across the river, they let it go into the wild while the elders go back to their villages quietly without looking behind them. They believe that if they look back the ritual will be ineffective.

To turn back symbolizes an incomplete break with what we are getting rid of. Turning back weakens our conviction to put an end to a deplorable situation. “I will never turn back” crystallizes in our mind our determination to persist in overcoming undesirable circumstances no matter the challenges.
 
Another powerful expression that drives home this idea is “to burn bridges.” This idiom comes from past military strategy when neither helicopters nor bombers existed. To ensure the commitment of soldiers, commanders would burn critical bridges leaving no escape route for retreat. All options of deserting are exhausted. Victory of the army and the nation became tied to the soldier’s personal survival.

In China, for example, it is recorded that General Kiang Yu ordered his soldiers to destroy all  cooking utensils and boats after crossing a river into the enemy's territory. He won the war.

Every fiber in our being must know that we have set up our mind to succeed. A decision to not look back, to burn certain symbolic bridges make it highly porbable for us to achieve our goals. Although Hilary R. Clinton did not clinch the presidential nomination for the Democratic Party in 2008, her support would be important in helping the Democrats raleigh behind Senator Barak Obama, the first African American to have the best chance to become a U.S. president.

 

To read the full speech, please visit Hilary R Clinton's website

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Homing torpedoes and guided missiles seek their targets unmistakenly. When a missile is launched without a target, it self-destructs. Homing torpedoes, guided missiles and jets use the homing process to reach their target or destination through a constant course correction mechanism.

A homing-like mechanism within all of us propels us towards achieving our goals. Although we work towards accoplishing set tasks, distractions pull us away from attaining them with ease. As a result, an important element of persistence is to accommodate the constant changes that we must face in accomplishing what we set out minds on. 

This constant self-monitoring is an important ingredient of what keeps some people going while others throw in the towel. Yogi Berra's saying, "It ain't over, till it's over" is a reminder that course correction after temporary set-backs and challenges can lead us to our destination when we keep our eyes on the prize.

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  There comes a time when we must commit to our life’s purpose. We discover that there never was an individual, there is no one living and there never will be another person exactly like us. We hear louder than ever the world calling us to use our unique light to brighten the corner where we find ourselves.

We remember what Pablo Casals, (1876-1973) the Spanish Cellist and Conductor, said about every child and every human being: “The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.”

Yet often, we discover that seemingly impossible difficulties assail our dreams. In despair, we are tempted to give up too soon.
The lives of those who have achieved the seemingly impossible remind us that we, too, must never give up. This “I will never give up” attitude propelled Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay to climb Mt Everest. Tensing Norgay, the Nepalese climber had attempted to reach the summit of the five and half mile high mountain five times without success.

Edmund Hilary, the Briton, would admit that “we didn’t know if it was humanly possible to climb Mt. Everest.” Yet these two pioneering mountaineers conquered the world’s highest peak. Fifty years later, more than 1200 people have repeated the same feat once thought impossible.

Sir Winston Churchill who later became Prime Minister of Britain entered the Royal Military Academy after failing three times. He led Britain to win the Second World War with the Allies through his burning desire for victory. He would tell the House of Commons at the beginning of the war:  “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival”

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Sarah Culberson's story is a metaphor of our lives. Sarah was given up for adoption to a loving West Virginia couple when she was about a year old.

"I was placed with angels," Sarah says of her adoptive parents and two older sisters in an interview she gave to Barbara Turnbull of the Toronto Star .

"When I look at it now, I see what a huge blessing and gift it was to have my dad stay up with me hours at night with homework, making a toothpick giraffe for a class, reading Shakespeare with me," she says.

But because she looked different (her mother was white and her father is black) she never very well accepted who she was when she was growing up. She over-compensated to gain acceptance.

Then she discovered four years ago that her father is alive in Africa, a king of his village. Joseph Konia Kposowa invited his daughter to Sierra Leone where the entire village gave her a big welcome. Now she knows that she not only has a home she is also a princess.

Sarah's story makes me think of our lot as human beings. Most of us struggle about our human condition. We work so hard to make our lives worthy and acceptable to society and to others. Yet, like Sarah, when we find out who we truly are, we will have a better sense of our worth. We are spirits living in human bodies. We are heirs and heiresses to the Kingdom within.

Sarah is an actress starring in TV films like "In Case of Emergency" (2007),  "Boston Legal" (2006) and "Deep End of the Poole" (2006). Sarah's career is going to pick up because with self-knowledge comes the strength to overcome limits. This is a promise that awaits us as we really understand who we truly are.

Read The Star Article:

Sierra Leone village welcomed her `home'

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Here's a sampler of what's on people's minds this morning. There's a lot more, of course. The question is: Where do you find the Mystery that some people call God in all this and in your own life experiences?

People are talking about the fire that gutted parts of Universal Studios Sunday morning, destroying sets of movies such as Back to the Future"  and "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Courtney Love is suicidal because Kurt Cobain's ashes have been stolen. She said in shock , "I can't believe anyone would take Kurt's ashes from me. I find it disgusting and right now I'm suicidal. If I don't get them back I don't know what I'll do." Top Socialite reported it first.

Centro Properties Group, a big Australian firm with cash problems won debt reprieve. Its shares soared 10 %  because it got a debt reprieve that allows the company to repay its $2.67 billion debt later, in mid-December. Centro Properties Group is the Australian owner of more than 650 U.S. malls and 129 shopping centers in Australia and New Zealand.

Academy Award-winning actress Tatum O'Neal is in Police custody in New York city for possessing illegal drugs.

Forbes Maagazine has just brought out report on royalty. Prince Williams is the on top of  the 20 hottest young royals list. To see the photos and other lists visit:

Senator Ted Kennedy is going for a surgery to remove his brain tumor at Duke University Medical

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Yolanda Renee King, the first grandchild of Martin King, Jr. and Coretta Scot King, was born at sunrise on 25 May 2008, a week ago, in Atlanta, Georgia. The child in most African traditions has no name during the first seven days of birth except its default name. The day of birth and birth order determine generic African names given automatically to children. Among the Akan of Ghana, a girl born on Sunday is called Akosua.

But the child has a secret name as well given to it during an elaborate christening ceremony on the eighth day of birth. The clan gathers around the baby. For the first time, the elders take her out of her crib. The officiating elder presents the child to the ancestors and the Supreme God at the door with prayers for good luck, long life, and prosperity. Until then, the child stays indoors with her mother who never takes her out. This is to protect the fragile one from the sun, the moon and other potentially harmful forces.

To Africans, children in general, the firstborn in particular, are holy, connecting the living with the dead, symbolizing the greatest of life’s mysteries. This is why the mother of a firstborn child among the Wodabe of Niger does not care for her own baby during the first few days. Other women take care of the newborn because the whole village is invested in its survival.

On the eighth day of a child's birth like today, Yolanda Renee King would have been brought out for the first time by the elders. They would offer predictions and attempt to find out which ancestor would protect her. They would give her special gifts and totems along with her secret name. The extended family joins in one big celebration.

I know that Martin Luther King III and Andrea Waters King and the King family are Christians. Christians have their exquisite naming rites. I am simply reflecting, at the birth of this illustrious African-American child, on one of the most powerful rites in Africa. And, if she were born in Ghana among the Akan of Ghana, she would be called Akosua. She could be named Phoenix, after the NASA Lander that touched down successfully on Mars because it was a big event that occurred the same day she was born.

Welcome and best wishes to Yolanda Renee Akosua Phoenix King. Congratulations to the proud parents Martin Luther King III and Andrea Waters King.

RESOURCES

Videos of Yolanda Renee King

African names

Read Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. African Ceremonies. Hardcover: 744 pages Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1999, 744 pages.

Watch incredible photographs of African Ceremonies by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher.

 

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