Month: January 2018

Categories
Philosophy

Who Am I

For almost all my life I thought I was what society taught me to be…

A man, brother, son, father, husband, friend, banker, American…human.

Then a new realization entered my consciousness: I am not my perception.

Before I could come to this new revelation, I had to discard the cultural virtue distilled by Descartes: “Cogito Ergo Sum” [translated “I think, therefore I am”].

My discovery is not unique. It is one amongst an emerging understanding expressed by diverse sources that reflect the dawning of a new paradigm.

I can not Be my perception because I create my perception. My perception changes as I experience life. As I learn the lessons of my experience, my perception becomes a more accurate expression of how life works. Ultimately, the wisdom of my perception combined with our cultural expectation led me to assume my perception of myself…is myself. It is not.

If I am not my perception, who am I?

I am energy.

I am currently embodied in human form to experience the limitations that only life can provide.

I surge when I grow close to other energy sources and ebb when I am isolated.

My energy transfers and even accelerates when I give or receive love. And then I am no longer limited to my own body.

I am part of something that exceeds this isolated, individualistic assumption of our existence.

I become Us.

Who are you?

Categories
Economics

The Dilemma of Money

Beyond the root of all evil, money is…

A lifeline to the resources that sustain us.

Often the difference between life and death.

The overseer on the modern plantation.

The sufficient condition for social interaction.

The great unequalizer.

The Midas touch of human relationships.

Our addictive undoing.

The culmination of the old paradigm.

The limit of our humanity.

The lowest denominator of infinity.

The zero sum of our abundance.

The price of our dignity.

The excuse for our disillusionment.

Our unfixable fix.

A stairway to nowhere…

The crass reduction of purpose into objectification.

The value of scarcity.

The $ign of the times.

The incentive for our extinction.

And yet the reality of our condition is we must seek money to survive another day.

By acknowledging the gilded shackles that bind us, we illuminate the path to our fulfillment.

Categories
Personal Growth

Death demystified

We have been taught death is about loss.

We mourn death.

We cry, tear clothing…fall into despair.

No more hugs. No more long conversations to the early morning light.

They are gone.

Yet while they were here, did we see them every day? No

And though we didn’t always see them, or talk to them, they enriched our lives every day.

How? Because our love made us one.

Regardless of what life offered, we knew how they thought, and what they would say. We knew they loved and supported us come what may. Knowing them made our lives better.

Does death make us forget? No

Losing physical contact is a profound loss, but once we make the emotional and spiritual connection through the love we share, we never, EVER lose each other.

This is why we should love as many people as we can. Certainly every person who contributes to making our lives worth living. Because in the absence of genuine love, physical connection is all we share…

…And death truly becomes a total loss.