Removing Impact Blinders Archives - Page 20 of 26

The Church of Universal Connection

April 19, 2014 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

If you read much of my stuff, you might get the impression that I’m a bit down on organized religion…

and “the church.”

You’d be right about that impression.

Why is that you ask?

Doesn’t the church do a lot of good?

Yes it does. Many lives are rescued from the brink by the loving and nurturing environment of the church.

As long as, once indoctrinated, they faithfully tow the dogmatic line.

But that belies a more insidious problem.

For example, I posted something to the Facebook wall the other day about evolution. A close family member, who is an evangelical church-going christian, vehemently protested…

saying that he was in fact, disturbed.

Folks, evolution is science. Science is not something we believe in…science gives us facts about our world that were previously unknown. To deny those facts based on religion…or based on the idea that the facts contradict what your religious text of choice might say, is both absurd and…

perilous.

The idea that the sun revolved around the earth was once a religiously inspired concept that, thankfully, was disproved by science.

Take the more current example of climate change.

It seems the most staunch deniers continue to be evangelicals…

or big business republicans with a financial stake in perpetuating denial.

Even while the scientific fact of global warming is already wreaking havoc before our very eyes.

What do they need Noah to reappear before they can “believe in it?”

So, in the sense that the church helps hurting people…

I’m all for it.

In the sense that it creates mindless dogmatic robots…

whose chief concern is what happens in the afterlife…

as opposed to improving the condition of people and planet in this reality that all of humanity confronts…

I’m dead-set against it.

I wish I’d studied science, but I went for business (and law) instead.

Here’s my advice to young people…DON’T (please don’t) study business…

study science.

Why?

Because it helps us understand the world as it is…it helps us to find the truth.

And armed with that scientific knowledge, we can truly begin to change things for the better.

Business, on the other hand, teaches us to make or manage money (and law to keep possession of it)…and money is at the root of most of our current problems.

Money and religion, that is…

Now, having said that, do I believe science explains everything?

NO!

I believe it does, or potentially can, explain things such as the origin of the universe from a physical perspective.

I saw an interesting video on YouTube in which Neil DeGrasse Tyson described the folly in the idea that anything unexplained by science is proof of religion, or the existence of god.

NDT says folks that want to play that game are backing themselves into a smaller and smaller corner since the realm of the scientifically unexplained is shrinking rapidly.

Nevertheless science cannot explain, at least I haven’t heard a satisfactory explanation as of yet…

as to why GOOD exists.

In other words, why is it within our unique human capacity to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others?

There seems to be some force beyond ourselves that “sometimes” compels us to do that…

and it is a mysterious force indeed.

One that, I will even go so far as to say, is, or emanates from,…

god.

So, if I were to start a church (don’t worry I have no plans to do so)…

it would be along the following simple lines:

The congregation would meet, maybe once a week, and figure out how to do some good.

How to have some impact.

How to make life better for someone else, probably with a focus on those less fortunate than we.

And then we would go about doing those things.

A church of impact…

The church of universal connection…

One that recognizes our sameness and strives to actually improve the overall human condition.

With no dogmatic beliefs or rules whatsoever.

Now there’s a church I could readily join the ranks of.

image credit: saxonfenken via Compfight cc

Zooming in on Zeitgeist

April 6, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I recently decided to offer my couch to weary Costa Rica travelers via the popular web site Couchsurfing.

And I just entertained my first surfer. A nice young fellow named Peter.

My goal in this is to meet interesting people and indoctrinate them into my revolution.

Well, that last part is me being a tad facetious.

But, really, Peter would make a great revolutionary misfit. He strikes me as a sort of real life Alexander Supertramp.

And he’s the one responsible for the idea of putting my voice to these blog posts. So that now you can access an audio version at the end of each post.

Hey, I’ve been told I sound a lot like Matthew McConaughey.

No ladies, I don’t look anywhere near like him…

but you can always fantasize!

Peter also turned me on to the Zeitgeist series of movies.

Now yesterday was one of those days that I laid in bed suffering from self-induced pain.

The kind that comes from a little too much Friday night fun.

But I did manage to view all three movies in the Zeitgeist series.

They are an intriguing set of flicks that can be accessed completely free on YouTube.

Now, I am not into this whole conspiracy thing. I am just too skeptical to believe that there’s some vast conspiracy behind our economic and monetary systems, or behind the tragedy of 9-11.

But the underlying premise of Zeitgeist is something to which I do readily subscribe…

and that is, that the world is fucked up.

And that the reason it’s fucked up is exactly what this (my) “revolution” is railing against…

greed and indifference.

Those are the dictators that this revolution seeks to depose.

That’s why the subtitle of my up and coming book (soon to released on Amazon), The Revolutionary Misfit Manifesto, is…

A Guide to Deposing Dictators with Impact Mindfulness.

I also will subscribe to the idea set forth by Zeitgeist that the problem is not the “system” itself…

but our way of thinking about it…of accepting it.

Why do we do that?

Because we are conditioned to.

Not as a result of some vast conspiracy, but just because “it” has gradually infiltrated our collective cerebral cortices as the default way to think.

So, in my opinion, the solution is not to change the “system”, but to change the way we think about it!

Hence this blog.

You see, I don’t really hold out much hope for a change in the system. It’s too entrenched. It’s been around too long and it would cause major disruption to life on our planet if it were tossed out tomorrow.

Not gonna hold my breath for that happening, certainly not in my life time.

But if we change the way we think, we can have a major impact on the way our lives are affected by that same system.

We can admit (can’t we?) that capitalism currently runs on greed and self-interest.

Hell, Milton Friedman even admits that it’s so.

But what if it didn’t?

What if we lived in a free market that really did seek the common good of all people?

Is that possible?

It is if we adopt the principles espoused in this blog…

those of impact mindfulness…

those that tell us to put…

impact over self interest…

and to embrace the idea that we’re all in this boat together, the idea of the so-called Big US…

and to set aside the impact blinders that blind our mind’s eye from seeing the truth.

The truth that unless we change, as Zeitgeist alludes, we, and those that come after us, are in for a not so pleasant future.

I believe that by simply changing the way we think and then act, we (the people) can take the wind out of Walmart…

and Wall Street.

We can form a more perfect Union.

We can change the world.

After all “the market” is…

us.

image credit: Corey Holms via Compfight cc

Sometimes it Takes a Flood

April 4, 2014 by costaricaguy 1 Comment

I saw Noah, the movie, last night.

Interesting.

Definitely a whole lot of “blank filling” going on there.

For instance, I’ve never read, in any translation, that Tubal-Cain ended up on the ark as a stow-away.

I also question the wardrobe department.

It just seemed that what they had the actors wearing was a little too modern…

I always pictured hides of animals draped and tied around their bodies…

not the neatly tailored and tightly fitting threads that Crowe and Connelly were styling.

And the accents in these bible-related flicks always gets me.

I really don’t believe English accents existed at that time and place in history.

But, despite those snarky complaints, the move was enjoyable.

And there seemed to be more of an ecological message to it than anything else.

And that was a fresh perspective.

I was always taught in Sunday school that Noah’s story was one of redemption.

That God was perfectly good and the world perfectly bad…so God just decided to start over…

and used Noah as his redemptive agent.

In that sense Noah represented a “type” of Christ…

and a foretelling of that other redemptive story that would play out thousands of years later.

But if you stop and think, the story of Noah really does have an ecologically conservative bent.

God chose to save only one family of humans, along with a potential mom and dad of every other living species.

I mean, if the emphasis was exclusively human redemption, why not save only Noah’s brood and a few domesticated animals that they might need to get along in the new world…

No sir, God wanted it all preserved…

even snakes!

Wasn’t it one of those guys that caused all the problems to begin with??

So, isn’t there a strong message emanating from Noah’s story about God deeming the ecology of this planet somewhat important?

And wouldn’t you know it…here we go again.

What’s it gonna take…another flood?

Because the waters are rising!

You know I was thinking just the other day about the concept of righteousness.

And that’s kind of ironic coming from a guy who is anything but.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that righteousness should go hand in hand with consistency.

That is, one is either consistently righteous, or not at all.

For instance, if you believe it righteous, from a biblical standpoint, to condemn gays…

shouldn’t you also condemn divorcees just as vehemently?

And if God cares about ecology, as the Noah story seems to reflect, shouldn’t we also?

So, why then, do we have the far right, the “christian” far right, being the most staunch global warming deniers?

I just don’t get it.

It’s not consistent.

What, do they not believe that God is capable of destroying the earth…again?

Well he might not have to as we have shown ourselves to be perfectly suitable to the task.

If one is being consistent with the bible, especially the story of Noah…one would have to conclude that God is very concerned about ecology…

He does care about more than just us.

After all, he created it all didn’t he?

So why shouldn’t we care?

That seemed to be the underlying message of this flick.

And you know what…

it’s a damn good one.

I guess sometimes it takes a flood to get our attention.

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Movements

April 3, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

Okay, so I’ll admit my recent posts have been a bit, what…

morbidly introspective?

So much so that family members are growing alarmed.

Hey, what can I say…

I try to use my life as an example…

and sometimes a warning.

Okay let’s lighten up a bit and talk about movements.

After all, this blog is designed and intentioned to be just that…

a movement.

But other than the metaphorical kind, how about real life ways we can move…

and feel better?

I have found it to be true that lack of movement means bad stuff…like apathy, depression and lack of creativity.

When I move I just feel better.

I feel more creative.

I feel more alive.

I feel like I can take it on…

whatever “it” might turn out to be.

Here are three ways I believe we can move consistently to feel and do better in life…

1. Move the pencil…

or pen, or keyboard, or whatever your instrument might be.

I have found that a consistent, almost daily, writing habit is a very good thing for me.

There’s stuff stuck in my head and heart that just needs to get out. If not for anything else, for me to understand it better…

and perhaps for you to as well.

When I go through tough times, I have found the following exercise to be extremely helpful:

Oh and sometimes writing is best done with pen and paper…

the old fashioned way.

This is one of those times.

So, get out a pen and piece of paper and write at the top the following heading…

“What do I have going for me right now”…

or something similar.

And then just start listing all the things that are good, or even potentially good, in your life.

I did that yesterday and came up with a list of 50 things. It took me all of maybe 15 minutes to make the list.

I re-read it this morning.

And I feel much better.

Writing is a worthwhile movement…even if you can’t make a coherent sentence.

Don’t do it for anyone other than you and it doesn’t really matter.

Now if you want others to read it…perhaps it pays to spend a little time re-writing, proofing and editing.

2. Move to a quiet place…mentally…

A good while back I adopted the habit of meditation. It’s actually a very simple thing to do.

You need nothing more than a quiet place to sit, perhaps a yoga mat or cushion and anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes of time.

And you just sit there and breathe. I prefer to do it with my eyes closed.

Yes your mind will wander. That’s what they do…those pesky minds of ours.

But you just keep yanking it back to the breath…as many times as necessary (and, believe me, there will be many).

I’ve found that meditation puts me in perspective. It slows me down. It helps ease or even erase the incessant worrying.

It makes me feel better

3. Move your ass…

For years I was the typical goal-oriented gym rat. I didn’t feel exercise was really exercise unless it was a couple hours spent in an expensive gym.

Hell, I even hired a personal trainer.

That’s a lot of pressure to place on an activity that really doesn’t need to be so complicated.

Maybe that’s why so many people either loathe doing it, or don’t do it at all.

These days, when it comes to exercise, I’ve adopted a different attitude…

just move my ass.

No goals.

Other than the aim to move a bit.

I do so in a number of ways, like…

walking – I don’t run because I can’t think and run at the same time…and my walks always produce ideas…
surfing – can’t live without it…
swimming – ok, I’ll admit I do go to “a gym” for this…but, hey, I love to swim…
yoga – another super simple activity that is extremely low maintenance…
hiking – akin to walking, but always done in an extremely natural setting…it’s cleansing, as well as great movement…
biking – took this up a while back…Costa Rica is a great place to bike.

That’s how I move.

How can you move?

Keep it simple and just move.

Forget about the goals.

I believe goals are generally borne of envy.

We want what others have.

Like that perfect body, or all that gorgeous shiny stuff, or that super-charged love life.

I used to want all that too.

But these days, I just want to move.

It makes me feel much better.

And it costs a lot less.

Movements are important. They change things. They make things better.

They make us better.

So, let’s just move.

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Hunting for Validation

March 26, 2014 by costaricaguy Leave a Comment

I have always prided myself on being a humble guy.

Wait, what’d I just say (write)…??…

“prided” myself on being humble?

What an oxymoron.

The very opening betrays a subtle underlying problem.

The constant yearning, obsession, and need for validation.

And the corresponding and terrifying fear of its counterpart, rejection.

I guess we all have it to one degree or another.

And it is the antithesis of humility.

I am not saying that the appreciation of validation is wrong. It’s perfectly natural to feel that familiar swelling of the ego when earned recognition comes our way.

What I am referring to is the desire for validation that really meddles with life.

That’s the kind that tends to direct where you go, who you meet (and love) and what you do.

I believe when one searches so arduously for this elusive “thing” called validation, it probably (perhaps certainly) means that there is none of it within.

It’s a constant hunting for validation out there somewhere.

And that’s a very dangerous safari indeed.

There are lions and tigers and bears out there who will eat you alive with rejection.

And these days I feel as if I have been chewed up and spit out.

So maybe it’s time to stop the insane pursuit.

Like that intense little boy in the superb film, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

He obsessively pursued validation from his father, even after his father was long gone, not knowing all the while that he already possessed it to the nth degree.

And so do we.

That is, we all possess “it” and need nothing further, really. It’s part and parcel of our created reality.

I believe realizing that fact and then halting the hunt is the essence of true humility.

Possess Your Life

March 25, 2014 by costaricaguy 2 Comments

I have a sticky note on my bathroom mirror that reads…

I wonder how my life will turn out today?

The intended emphasis is wonder…

the wonder-ment of life.

But one day I read it differently.

The meaning conveyed was more of a sense of possession.

In our western capitalistic society we are all too familiar with possession, aren’t we?

That’s what life is all about…possessing things.

But sometimes the things we think we possess…

we really don’t at all.

We have a home until the bank takes it.

We have our health until disease takes it.

We have our looks until age takes it.

We have our spouses until separation, divorce, or death takes them.

We have our children until adulthood takes them.

We have our hopes and dreams until disillusionment takes them.

So, what is it that we are really capable of possessing in this life of ours?

That brings me back to my little sticky note…

this life that I have is indeed mine…

it truly is my life.

That is so easy to miss, isn’t it?

You’re persuaded throughout your life that you don’t really possess it at all.

Do you possess your life?

Our does your work, kids, spouse, debts, commitments, infirmities, or circumstances possess your life?

But the truth really is…

My life is mine.

It is the one thing that is truly mine.

The proof is in the fact that solely my decisions (and reactions) control the direction of my life.

You just can’t say that about anything else.

So, really I determine the quality, or lack thereof, of my life…

not circumstances, or things, or people.

So I want to encourage the decision to do just that.

That is, to stop obsessing about what you can’t possess and fully take ownership of what you can…

your life.

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