"cretan savages"

when the cold night falls and you're far from home, you may hear old voices sing

of the love for battle and its travesties, like viking souls on a restless sea

for all our past must be born again, thus be the way of men

by our gods we choose our bad & good, though judgement's usually misunderstood

for the world is ruled by misguided men, who choose to keep us in this fix

and our societies worship royalties in the creed of hypocrit

in god's name we have learned to lie, to gain someone's belief

and if babes are born to an angry heart, gods of war get another start

open minds are necessity, for they help to change old mythologies

without them we can never solve, our fears of change in how time revolves

for the world is ruled by misguided men, who choose to keep us in this fix

and our societies worship royalties in the creed of hypocrit

man must learn from all his sides, to make the wisest choice

for life is not to win or lose, but remembering how to choose

yeah the cretan savage is what we are, spawn of our ancient ones

handed down in dream & blood, both enforced by our mother tongues

Reconditioning thru recognition

I love words. They say so little and so much. It seems the more we use them...the more of them we need. Take 'recognition' for example.........its made of 'cognition' which is defined as 'the process of knowing in the broadest sense, inclusive of perception, memory, and judgement' so if you seek to re-condition anything you must first be able to cognate the subject matter to the best of its context. These three requirements of cognition could be compared and juxtaposed to the three primary levels of control learned by children in the first year of life outside the womb. Using a simple set of words to define these primary levels such as recognition, acceptance, and manipulation......respectively beside perception, memory, and judgement..........may help to provide avenues in creating both revues of past attitudes and their associations to fund change and pave appropriately useful ways of dealing with changing times etc.

If one can rediscover where a current accepted modality of action/belief comes from then it stands to reason that thru this memory there is the possibility that the first understanding of circumstances was not actual cognition but instead was only a partial understanding of the issue at hand leading to a partial ability to clearly judge the matter at hand and subsequently act on it. In the essentials of learning, an example would be how a person understands driving a car in relation to driving a tractor-trailer unit. I recently had an experience where an agent for Worker's Compensation Board suggested driving a heavy truck was no different than driving a pick-up. His lack of cognition was apparent by this naive comparison.

Socially, especially due to protective measures by our caregivers, most of us are given to instruction that supplies only limited relevance to the matter at hand. This limit of understanding means we are able to use what we percieve partially at best. It becomes increasingly apparent to us when we encounter situations in which we flounder. The keys to reconditioning at these points can be found in paying attention to our immediate emotional imagery which, if carefully studied, will point out what we weren't aware of in our initial perception or at least give us more clues to pursue.

In times like now it is very important to seek these clues because family unity foundations can expose the cheese-like nature that acquisition of our basic needs are built on when such things as home and/or job losses are experienced. In paying extra attention to the images produced during this stress one will find sources for reconditioning personal and familial values. This discovery of more information allows for changing the attitudes which led us to the losses in the first place. Nothing in life is certain......except change.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

It seems as though just about everyone is having to make readjustments in their lives right now.......for certain all those affected directly by job losses and so forth.............so here's a little blessing for all who are struggling at this time.

"Love Passin'"

copyright 2/02/2000

Mama's little angel walks by her side & she's beamin'

got her own child with its babydoll smile & she's dreamin'

One day she'll be grown with a family her own in her thinkin'

she's done her best now showin' her how in th' trainin'

Somewhere tonight a little boy cries cuz' he's hurtin'

he prays by his bed but his daddy has left so he's learnin'

that life's just a dance & we all take a chance in th' livin'

but there's no guarantees cuz' ain't nothin' for free but th' choosin'

yeah it's all about changes that's th' nature of man

& everyone wants when a change is at hand

we keep tryin' oh tryin'

to walk in the light of love passin'

An angry voice loud is livin' too proud & I'm warnin'

you'd better beware cuz' my taxes ain't fair & I'm blamin'

I've about had enough lifes gettin' too tough & I'm burnin'

I lost all I had & I'm sure as hell mad at things changin'

Through the bars of a jail hear a lonely man wail for releasin'

he's been beggin' his gods to favor his odds while he's waitin'

He swears he will change if they loosen his chain & free him

Tho' his anger & rage dug his own grave from his needin'

Yeah its all about changes that's the nature at hand

& everyone wants in the changes of man

while we're tryin' oh tryin'

to walk in th' light of love passin'

There's a lover downtown out slippin' around & he's bettin'

but he'll be loosin' his shirt & the woman he's hurt misbehavin'

when she leaves him alone all his tears on a phone won't be dryin'

cuz' it takes a long time to pay for a crime like cheatin'

So ya can't cheat the gods by tryin' to play odds in believin'

one truth I know is we reap as we sow in this livin'

You'll see it my friend when we get to our end in our judgin'

cuz' its always th' same & change is love's game when love's passin'

Mama's Pride

This picture was taken in Edmonton, in 1954.
I am a fortunate man. In my life there are a great many things I can be thankful to the multi-verse for. I was given an intelligent parent to observe while my childhood passed and, regardless of the selfish choices I made as a child, she lay a beautifully founded base of example for me to draw from. At the point of twenty-five years old while recovering from a drug-induced near death experience, I had a number of perfectly connective epiphanies about my life which clarified my existentialist views of the world I live in. I quit running from the fear of pain and what I perceived adulthood to be comprised of, choosing instead to about-face and run straight into the fear. This is how I came, over the next thirty years, to realize my mother had chosen the classic belief system and thus was living vicariously through her children..........something she had little conscious intention of doing in her early life. She had intended a life dedicated to humanity in some holistic form as a young woman but, as so many do, tricked herself by delusions of romantic love.

When she awoke to her reality, she forsook all self-concern and accepted her task of raising four children alone. Now she is interned among others who have lost much of their former abilities to direct their lives and dementia has taken much of my mother from us. I am at peace with this as I am with most aspects of my past and by and large I owe this ability to release.........to my mother's examples. This is the last song I wrote that she was still able to fully comprehend.

"Mama's Pride"

c.-06/2006

Well there used to be so many things that I was afraid of

women like her and men like you I just could not understand

My learnin' curves in this life seemed too hard for me to manage

so when things got too difficult I always cut and ran

my Mama was as hard as nails any time I crossed her

and you can bet I tried at every turn

it set the stage for me quite young to learn to use my anger

tho' anger is the tool that always burns.

Mama's pride.....Mama's pride....is the toughest thing you'll ever understand

Mama's pride....Mama's pride.....you better otherwise you'll just be damned

I took off down that lonesome trail when I was only sixteen

and bonded with the ones I saw the same

Yeah they all had the same attitudes that made me feel security

but one that points the fingers full of blame

I've broken up a lotta hearts who tried to help me save myself

not seeing that they felt the same as I

Well it ain't true the tales we're told attractions ain't from opposites

cuz' love is always based on Mama's pride

Mama's pride....Mama's pride...is the toughest thing you'll ever understand

Mama's pride...Mama's pride...you better otherwise you'll just be damned

The road I chose has taken me thru famine, feast, and fantasy

and taught me all the lessons Mama missed

and I don't think she ever thought she'd find her truth vicariously

but love don't guarantee and that's the twist

Mama you're the first love, as well, the one to hate

but from your lips and hands I found a well

you taught me all the principles it took to get to heaven's gate

and now I see where all the mamas dwell

"KINGDOM COME" copyright 02-2001

I am the voice of the wind thru the pines and its I hear your prayers in the night

I am the swell of the wave on the sea and the storm who can blind any sight

you are but one who must call out to me and take time to learn of my ways

there is but one who can do this for you and it will take many days

so tell me, how can a mother and father show care, while writing those books of deciet

If we're bound by a glory of God given shares, with knowledge you'll taste no defeat

Cast all false hope unto Davy Jones Locker, put your own heart to the test

until you do you will stay as the others, and never will you set fear to rest

all you shall learn among idol believers, is the bend of your will to their rule

to be sated by anger in apocalypse greaves, leaves you one more apostolic fool

tell me how could a father and mother show care while they live by those books of deciet

If we're bound by a glory of God given share, in the knowledge we face no defeat

We walk beside angels,recapturing battles, but passing thru judgement alone

for if waiting for saviors, a man learns to covet, but never to stand up alone

They buried their lion and burned their papyrus, left questions unanswered for some

Yet all who seek knowledge...cannot know hunger...for the journey is all Kingdom Come

the importance of paying attention and adapting reworked focus agents

In the recent past my peer associations have been discussing the difficulty they have in changing their personal attitudes towards change itself. I see a theme in the overall which reaches not only into the personal, but with all current sociopolitical dilemnas worldwide. I'll start this week with a bit on why paying attention is so important to understanding the compassionate self in times of upheaval.

When we are children our attention spans tend to be very short and scatter among whatever sensory input we are directly in contact with. During this period we are adopting and developing both individual and universal focusing tools which help us learn to adapt to our surroundings and family order. These primary tools will endear us with adaption for the rest of our Earth-lives again and again.

As time passes most of us will hone these "focus-agents" for use in our families and societies to a degree based upon our need. It will suffice to say the simpler needs are, the more easily they will be learned and thus the "agent" required to adapt to these needs will be simple. While simple agents will work for children, as we grow things inevitably become more complicated. The requirements presented to us through our school years , as example, will demand more stringent focus than just the family rules. If nothing else, family pecking orders while attending schools , may have no value at all and this will necessitate adoption of new "focus agents" to find your place among peer groups.

It is the very nature of how we are accustomed to learning , using our "focus agents", which can be either beneficial or detrimental to our will to adapt.

When I encounter difficulty in adapting to a change or different life-skill, the problem isn't the ability to envision the needed change so much as creating an "agent" for me to adapt to it. The principle is always the same. A good example is how children are taught right and wrong in fables and fairy-tales. In their original forms these usually had "glaring" examples of the way things turn out for those who break social taboos. It was the view by many that since children see life at simpler levels they need simple examples to allow them time to learn to make decisions for themselves.........so the wolf doesn't make friends.........he gets killed by the hunters. The morals of these original teaching tools help children adapt to their societies but the "agent" by which a child learns must be discovered by itself. A mistake often made by parents is thinking they are teaching the child when they are actually setting examples for the child to adopt from. If a difficulty arises between the parent and child then the problem is usally in how the child views the example.

As we all learn, changes can be frightening and difficult for us. What matters most, once the change is envisioned, is the trial and effort ("agent") it takes to get this new vision of ourselves in motion.

Time after time when I find myself re-cycling old emotional attitudes in current social interactions I look to my past and search for more information to clarify the "agents" which helped produce this attitude. This process always requires closer attention to my discoveries because how we see ourselves as adults may help us see that memories can be distorted by the emotional state of childhood. What we experience in strong emotional memorys can actually be a false memory . One thing we can utilize is our natural-child "agent" to listen to the 'feeling' of a conversation rather than words. This kind of listening is more 'natural' or 'organic' than word-image association because it is a primary learning tool that all matter is born with..........except maybe a rock......and I couldn't swear to that. Using this "agent" requires setting aside pre-conceptions about what to expect in the conversation.............especially with any type of parent figure. Parent figures hold all the 'trigger mechanisms' that would formerly control your ability to see beyond their limitations at the time the subject matter was first experienced. They can easily reject what you bring to the conversation unless you are prepared to use this new "agent". Over the years this has proved very useful in helping others take a more realistic look at what was continuously creating problems for them. There is a proper name for this in pyschotherapy but for simplicity I call it "primary listening".

"Primary listening" requires little more than observing body language and how it makes you feel. If you make a study of it you will learn a whole new language which lies at the heart of the way children learn everything in their primary years. I once read a Gary Larson cartoon which gave a brilliant interpretation of this and titled,"What the dog hears". It showed a man lecturing his dog and the words were "blah,blah,fido,blah,blah,fido" and so forth. Like a child the dog had no association to words until he could correlate them to body language and/or act.

The important part to remember is these discoveries must become an "agent" in our daily lives to learn the change. If we merely discuss or argue the issue we will not learn to change it. After a time the freshness of the discovery turns stale and we find ourselves bored by the discussions and arguments. What then usually transpires is the former "blindness" takes hold again and repetition of the same old behavior cycles begin.