This is very interesting. I learned this by reading
Further Along the Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck. Whether you are a fan of his or not, this is interesting and spiritual.
In the thirties, when Alcoholics Anonymous came to be, a guy was seeing Jung for psychoanalysis. At that time there was no treatment for alcoholism, nothing really effective besides incarceration, institutionalization or death. However, Jung told this man who was a hopeless alcoholic that one way some had recovered was through a religious conversion. So, this man searched for religion.
A few months later he converted to a religion and stopped drinking. He then went to see a man named Ebby. Ebby offered him a drink. He said, "I no longer drink. I found religion."
Ebby was like, "what? But, you are a hopeless alcoholic." So, he told Ebby about what Jung had said.
Then Ebby found religion and got sober as well. He then went to see Bill Wilson, commonly known as Bill W., one of the founders of AA. Bill W. offered Ebby a drink. Ebby said, "I no longer drink. I had a religious conversion."
Bill W. ended up doing the same, and he began a group called Alcoholics Anonymous, where men and women, mostly men back then, because women probably were more ashamed due to the latency of the suffrage movement, only just beginning slightly I guess, could get together and talk about alcoholism and recovery in an anonymous, safe environment. Of course, coffee and cigarettes were prevalent, and still are except that people no longer smoke indoors. The important thing was the program, the camaraderie, the fellowship, and the place to share, as well as the sponsorship and the steps. Of course, it has never been based on any creed, religion or sect, but there is a focus on God or a higher power.
The idea of AA is that only a power greater than oneself could restore one to sanity. That is actually step two after admitting oneself to be powerless over alcohol, which is the first step. I hope some of you found this as interesting as I did. We all have dysfunctions, whether or not alcoholics or addicts. I believe we all need a program, steps one through twelve and a counselor or sponsor of some sort. We all can use some fellowship and guidance from time to time, no matter how smart, spiritual or independent.
I was talking to a lady not much older than myself, forgotten and neglected by family, stuck in a nursing home, without hope, because of some bad luck.
Families do not rally around for a family member who is disabled. There are almost no family values left, and so many people have no one.
I am lucky to have my children, but if I were to get sick, I have no idea who would be there for me. Many people have no one. I guess we have to trust God if we can still believe in Him.
These are facts that I think are contributing to the falling apart of society. 1) The popular support group, Alanon, originally pertaining to alcoholism, the loved ones, started by Lois, the wife of Bill Wilson (author of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, often called 'The Big Book'), has turned into a support group for anyone, even if it does not pertain to them. They use it as a pass to do nothing for anyone, and to be totally selfish. The idea is that just for today, I will take care of myself, a very good thing if used in the right context, but this pop-psychology has given many an excuse to just ignore anyone in need. Yes, we do need to take care of ourselves, to not enable, and all that, but there is a joke even: what is a slip for an Alanon member?: a moment of compassion. 2) Our healthcare system is not better under Obama, but worse, and many of these new health care plans are bogus. Medicare and Medicaid are taken by fewer and fewer doctors. The liberals defend Obama, but this healthcare plan is not even what they wanted, and many of us, like me, only voted for him again out of fear of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, that they would make things even worse. I believe they would have. They wanted to destroy Medicaid, which would have put poor people in jeopardy and without medical transportation. As Bill Clinton said so well, at the Democratic Convention, they think there is some alternate universe, where the poor and disabled, who rely on Medicaid, including children, either do not exist, or suddenly do not need this help. I do not know what they were thinking. Truthfully, I do not think they could have done that, with the poverty in rural states like South Carolina where I am from. 3) Churches do not reach out and support people in the way they should, not the disabled or elderly.
The way things are now, the lower middle class and poor are barely surviving, and rich people are managing to get fraudulent Medicaid. This only serves to take away from the people who really need it. The poor are suffering in America with so called Obamacare. The ones who are honestly trying to get insured, are often financially still unable to, because of the ones who should not really be on assistance. I think the system is really messed up in a lot of ways.
Why are so many people alone, forgotten, neglected, uncared for, and/ or homeless? A friend of mine told me that three or four homeless people that live in her area, died this winter, out in California, due to exposure to the cold. This is really sad when you think about it, and when you take a good long look at what America once was and was supposed to be about. I realize this has been going on for a while now, but it should not be going on at all.
The best feminist book is Women Who Run With the Wolves, a complete archetypal Jungian dissertation, which you can study and takes notes in, as well as reading as a group. Dr. Pinkola brings the traditions of medicine woman from South American tradition together with Jung, the shadow, and the fairy tales that have deeper meaning.
Another good feminist book is Loving Him Without Losing You. This PhD. writer talks about how women live so much in fantasy, and not really noting reality.
I think to call oneself a feminist is one thing, but truly living it and learning what it means is another. Many female authors are feminists as well, such as Elizabeth Berg, Joyce Carol Oates, and others.
It is hard for women today. We want to be in relationships with men, but often they do not work out, and not to harm anyone, we have to move on and take our power back just to survive. We do not want to lose ourselves.
I may be too far from a dreamer, but even though I have been married, had kids, and had long term relationships, part of me thinks no one has been in love with me. I really do not know. I know that I thought, at one time or another, that I was in love, myself, but I do not even know now if I really was.
Now I almost have an aversion to men. I get turned off by them really fast, and I cannot bare wasting time with anyone, knowing full well they are not for me, that I am not for them. It is not anything against men in general. I mean I have sons. I just get bad feelings sometimes about the men who approach me. It could just be jadedness or caution, but I have learned to ward off red flags, and I will not 'rush in,' ever, after the experiences I have had. Once you have had your life demolished and had to pick up the broken pieces of your finances, your kids, yourself, it gets harder and harder to want anyone, or to even say yes - ever. I am not wrong in this, but I am not saying it is good. It just is what it is.
At this point, I think I am just okay with me.
In the ecosystem, we have a food chain, and every species, insect, reptile, mammal, plant even, has a purpose, in it. Here in the south, we do not have a lot of snow, the southeast that is, but we have the brown recluse spider, and we have copperheads and water moccasins or cotton mouth snakes, but mostly in wooded areas, fresh water for the moccasins, woodpiles, old sheds, shoes left outside for the brown recluse, which has a flesh eating venom which is serious.
However, out on my front deck, out of the way of human traffic, there is a big spider web and a big spider on it, very cartoonish, so clear is it, under the light of the outdoor lighting.
I was worried, because of horror stories I heard about the brown recluse, and the flesh rotting away from its bite from the inside out, so I started doing research on spiders, to try to assess what to do, and what type of spider it was.
From my research, the brown recluse has un-spiraled or smooth, spineless legs, and it has a violin pattern on its head, and only six eyes, verses eight, however I cannot see well enough to see any of that, and who wants to get that close? Kind of dangerous. But, I did compare it to some pictures I found on line, and I was pretty sure it was not a brown recluse, because of the right out in the openness of its very distinct web. They say the brown recluse only builds small out of the way webs, and would not be hanging around like the spider in Charlotte's Web. My son likes this spider. It eats moths and mosquitos, and hopefully roaches, which I hate, and it is not bothering anyone. Still, I worry. I realize that most spiders cannot bite at all, so there is little to worry about. There are spiders that look similar to the brown recluse, such as the wolf spider and others, but I have not been able to see well enough to see exactly what spider type this is.
One spider which is also notorious for its poisonous bite, is the black widow, which contrary to myth, rarely really eats its mate, the female that is. Note I said 'rarely.' This spider is black with a distinct red marking on its back.
If you do not want a spider or it is in the way, and you do not want to murder it, in case it is not a menacing one, you can take a jar and a piece of crisp paper or cardboard to capture and place it elsewhere. However, this is not so easy for everyone, mainly me, because of my slight fear of spiders, and liking them from afar. I truthfully kill spiders I find indoors, to be on the safe side, just squash them, rather than dousing with bug spray to induce a slow and painful death. I would not even like doing that to a roach, at least not seeing it.
If you love spiders, and you have found a web like mine, a 'Charlotte's web' kind of web, you can feed your cute spider, by throwing small insects into the web, such as a beetle, an ant, a roach, a moth, hopefully dead.
Just to end, back to snakes, I once completely freaked out when a big corn snake went under my trailer. I had cats then, and I was trying to throw the recycling bin over it, to capture it, and the cats just sat and stared at it like wimps, because normally cats kill even the most poisonous snakes. I did not know at the time it was a nonpoisonous snake, and thought it was a coral snake or worse. The Mexicans across the street heard me screaming, but I do not know if they knew what I was screaming at, and I do not know the Spanish word for snake. They probably just thought I was having an emotional nervous breakdown, like my boyfriend left me or something, lol. I called a snake specialist, and he charged me fifty dollars for going under to find it, and all through. He never found it, but he showed me a picture of a snake that looked just as it had. I said, "yes, yes, that's it." It was a harmless corn snake. Still, I had a hole near my bed which was right above the place outside where it had gone under the mobile home, so you can see my concern.
I think that spiders are fascinating creatures, but beware of the brown recluse and the black widow.
We live in a world of materialistic values. I have had friends who were extremely materialistic. I still do. If I were to subscribe to their values, however, I would be screwed.
I admit that I would love to have a more beautiful house. I only had a beautiful house for two years, aside from the modest, but lovely home, I grew up in. Some people, however, like a friend of mine, only get to have a child for two years. My friend's child died. It is obvious what is more important.
Still, we weigh and value people by what they own, drive, live in. We even gage their intelligence on this, because had they been stupid, would they not have made choices as bad as mine? Truthfully, I have known people who were poor, but highly intelligent, so that is not the case. You cannot take your 'shit' with you when you die. It won't fit in your ivory coffin. So, realize that even if you want to keep up with the Jones's, it is not worth it. Do not compromise oneself for others' beliefs. If you are comfortable or not, remember that all the wealth in the world, cannot necessarily bring more than glamour. Perhaps, with Hollywood and everything else, glamour is what we are driven by. It is only lies we tell ourselves that make us unhappy.
I think I would miss the convenience and ethnic diversity of my neighborhood, as well as the true richness of life, if I were to move to a fancy dwelling. Happiness does not lie in the ivory towers of the mind.
The title is actually something that Einstein said, but I think it is true. I have to take my hat off to Jodi Picoult for The Storyteller, a story of a young woman whose grandmother is a holocaust survivor, and she meets a man in his nineties, who claims to be a former S.S. officer, a Nazi. He wants Sage to kill him, but she gets in touch with the F.B.I. and Leo Stein, an agent specializing in this area, goes to visit her grandmother with her, because she is the only one who could possibly truly identify him, in case he was lying, for whatever reason. The grandmother, Minka, has never talked about the camps, ever, but tells her story, which is horrific.
There has never in history been anything as horribly strange as the holocaust. I know that people have been persecuted many times over, such as slavery, genocide in Africa, the twin towers, the native Americans, but I do not know if people realize that the Jews have never been given a public apology by Germany. And, I realize others have not had that either. I also hate it when Meher Baba followers try to make up pat answers, and claim that Meher Baba said this or that. I really do not care about that, or care to hear it. I do not like A Course in Miracles interpretation either.
When you really think, nothing is as insane as rounding up Jews and at first taking their homes away, and sending them to ghettos, and then putting strict rules on them, like not walking on the sidewalk, wearing yellow stars, and not going to school. Jewish children had to sew those Nazi symbols onto shirts, etc..
Then in the camps, it was starvation and murder. Only by luck or strength, some survived, and those who survived were never the same. It makes you want to cry when help finally came, the English, Russians or Americans, depending on which camp, the red cross.
I find that among some liberals, there is almost an anti-Semitism nouveau, and you may not agree or understand, and perhaps it is not only liberals, but some conservatives too, but people do not seem to care anymore. As I said before, there is no statute of limitation on murder, and any Nazi still alive, no matter how old, should have consequences. However, unlike Law and Order, this is not always the case. They are, if sent back to Europe, rarely contended with there, and we have not the jurisdiction to punish them on American soil.
It is difficult for me not to hate the Germans, although I am one quarter gentile German, I am also half Jewish. Anyone should find the holocaust despicable. Please note that any anti-Semitic remarks will be removed from my blog. Freedom of speech has limits, not legally, but in this type of forum.
The good is that ethnic cleansing was not successful completely, and the Jews are still viable and worship in temples, have lives in many countries. Still, the idea that you should blame a people for your economic or social problems, take everything they own and eliminate them, taking away every human right, is preposterous, and I cannot believe they got away with it, until the war ended, and they were found out, the people surviving rescued. I think Picoult did an amazing job of researching and accuracy, and she is a world class writer in my book now, and although I have always liked her books, The Storyteller is her very best work.
I am reading Jodi Picoult's 2013 bestseller, The Storyteller. I would like to tell you that my idea of a good time was kayaking, sky diving, and jet skiing, but I guess I am boring, because my idea of a good time, is a good book or a good movie and a glass of wine.
Even though the holocaust was sixty years ago, there is no statute of limitation on murder. When we extradite Nazis to Europe, often nothing is done with them. No consequences, but anyone who watches Cold Case, knows there should be..
Picoult's main character is Sage, a name I wish now, I had kept. My birth name is Leslie, but part of me will always be Sage as well. I dreamed that Mehera said that I was Leslie Sage. However, my parents named me Leslie, a popular name in the early sixties, like Christopher, my brother's name. Leslie and Christopher were the names of actor Michael Landon's kids.
A bad economy is never reason for genocide. So many excuses for Nazism, and for the apathy of the Germans and other Nazi countries in Europe, towards Jews, gypsies, and anyone they considered the enemies, six million.
