Monday, May 27, 2013

KS&L 281 Are We Creating War? A Memorial Day Perspective by Tina Erwin


We tell people to make love, not war, but we see people who supposedly love each other kill each other in their own homes. We are, as a civilization, exceptionally hypocritical and profoundly violent.
         We fight with our neighbors, our friends, co-workers and families. We are the microcosm of war on a day-to-day basis. Is it any wonder that governments struggle with the macrocosm of crazy leaders fighting other crazy leaders? We even fight each other politically, but blessedly, in the United States, without overt violence.
However, we do engage in ‘dirty tricks’ in national and business politics. The first casualty is always the truth. First we distort the truth, so that it looks like something else and then we pretty much finish it off, by making something that starts out as good into something horrible. We have so distorted the truth that we have no idea what to believe anymore.
Television networks, which condemn cries for vengeance in other countries, think nothing of airing shows, which promote vengeance among teenagers, business people and neighbors. It sells product because people love conflict. Are we teaching our young people that vengeance is an acceptable behavior?
We cry and demonstrate against military deaths, as if death were somehow surprising. People live and they eventually have to die of something. People look at numbers and are horrified, without realizing that in an average year, the entire United States military, all services combined, has roughly 2200 people die per year, when we are not at war.  Contrast that statistic with the fact that over 6,000 young people die each year when they go to college: six thousand. In the last six years, 36,000 kids died in college where they were supposed to be safe. No one is upset about that statistic. Contrast this with the six years of the Iraq war, where four thousand people have died in that conflict. Horrible, heart wrenching as it is, in six years, that number is still dramatically lower than one year of deaths in college. It is chilling to consider that a young person statistically is safer in the military than in college, even when we are at war.
 We loose 100,000 people to hospital mistakes every single year:  one hundred thousand people. Where is the press coverage of this? And the list goes on. People live and they die all kinds of deaths. There has to be a way for people to leave when the experience they came for in this time and space is over. War, emotional, personal, national, neighborly war, is frequently a method of exit.
Another thought to ponder is that conflict offers each of us an opportunity to ‘stand up for something’ and to discover whether we ‘have what it takes’ to be a courageous person. Courage is action in the face of fear, difficulty and hardship. Well, to be able to show courage, you have to have fear, difficulty and hardship. So, back to polarity we go.
         So, these are some of the reasons there is war, and it serves to remind us that we need to be very, very careful when we accuse someone else of ‘warmongering’ or being violent. Unless this planet undergoes some unimaginable spiritual transformation that takes the concepts of violence out of our emotional structure, there will continue to be ‘low intensity conflicts,’ as a minimum and major wars as a terrible potential.
We may also want to be circumspect in using negative words about the military. Most military people really want to make peace and actually want to avoid war at all costs.
For example, if you ask a US Navy Commander, how he feels about his job of being captain of a nuclear submarine carrying 24 nuclear missiles, that could pretty effectively destroy the entire world, he will immediately tell you that he feels he was successful at his job if he never fires a weapon in anger.  That would be the definition of peace keeping. Yet, if you contrast that with a home-owner how owns a gun, he or she expects to use it to stop an intruder.
Military people really understand how terribly costly war is. Ultimately their goal is to be peacekeepers, not war makers. Actually, the military is really the only agency working to ensure that wars do not happen. Civilians in government make the decisions to ‘go to war’. Congress has to approve this, not the military. At the end of the day, how ironic is that? 
So on this Memorial Day, let us all be grateful for the sacrifice of men and women thorugh the ages who defended our freedom and let us always remember, that freedom is costly and will always have to be earned. 

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Reflections on Brazil 2013 Part 3 by Tina Erwin


     
     
   These are my new Brazilian friends sharing a coke with me!
Food is expensive here and the cost is increasing as the city prepares for the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. A simple lunch in a neighborhood restaurant with two people who only drank bottled water was over $50. We had three very simple appetizers and no dessert. In another all-you-can-eat restaurant in Copacabana, the fixed price all you can eat buffet was $250.00 (yes, that dollars.)--- for lunch --- We only did that once! (Check out the website for this restaurant:  Marius.com.br) Neighborhood markets for fruit, vegetables are really expensive. The only real buy was coffee, that amazingly delicious, aromatic, Arabica bean Brazilian coffee. It makes a gift that is always appreciated! Troy loved the restaurants. We had wonderful food!
        
This trip, we learned how to use the metro to navigate the city and some of the city busses. The metro here, unlike Singapore, is not air conditioned.
        [Copacabana Beach]

         Another interesting thing to address is the fact that no one feels that the tap water in Rio is safe to drink. Hence this country goes through mountains of bottled water. Imagine that you cannot serve ice, or iced tea or a glass of tap water. It must all be packaged. No wonder they have a fledgling recycling program. We used the tap water to brush teeth and bathe and never had a moment’s difficulty. 
         We also noticed that the United States is very ‘media self-centered’. We really have no idea what is going on in the rest of the world. While in Brazil, we watched CNN international because it was only global news. The United States didn’t receive any more news coverage than any other country. How different was the coverage? Consider that there was a world tour-wrestling match in Iran. Competitors from all over the world came to participate – including the US Men’s Wrestling Team. The coverage showed how warmly the US was received – in Iran! During that report, an Iranian movie critic reviewed the new Oscar winning movie Argo. It was fascinating to see the inaccuracies that he identified, from the Iranian point of view. But he wasn’t angry or critical – merely a bit bemused.
       [Non-GMO chocolate trees!]
         The Pope’s last day got 18 hours of coverage on CNN International. There was an entire week special that covered critical elections in Kenya and the affect on that area of the world.
         There was a very long, in depth report on Russian and African adoption by US families. It was a completely different view, offering perspectives from both sides of the controversy.
         Perhaps the one of most fascinating elements were the reporters themselves. These women were not models. Some were obviously overweight, and some did not have quite the polished delivery. Men and women of every race, class, and body type are out there reporting in each country of the world for CNN. In this country we seem to have to have only gorgeous handsome people provide the highly censored, sanitized and crafted ‘news’ information. Not that other counties and CNN Global don’t do the same thing, its simply that I enjoyed hearing about the weather in China and snowfalls in the Japanese Sakhalin Islands or southeast Asia. Learning about how people feel about Italian politics was amazing as well as how those bizarre elections affect all of Europe.
    [. . .more botanical garden shots]
        
Perhaps the most glaring observation was that we could more readily see through these news reports, how incredibly connected we all are to each other and how what one country does or doesn’t do affects us all. Maybe that’s the point of traveling.
         I noticed magazines in Portuguese teaching diabetics how to manage their illness. I observed more extremely expensive organic products beginning to line store shelves. Obesity isn’t quite the problem in Rio yet, but with aspartame packets, American diet soda in each store and GMO foods dominating Brazil agriculture – its sadly only a matter of time. This is especially critical in Brazil since this population is also battling the US scourge that is Monsanto. Monsanto has a huge presence in Brazil and Brazilian courts are now beginning to rule against this greedy company in favor of the farmers they have cheated. More and more lawsuits are being successfully waged against Monsanto in Brazilian courts. The last court case awarded Brazilian farmers 2 Billion dollars in damages against GMO seed.
         There was another story about Egypt and their loss of farming due to the civil war. Egypt now imports 70% of its food, where before this civil war, they were mostly self-supporting. We never hear anything like this on our stations, regardless of who is reporting.
         There is a gentleness here, an easygoing atmosphere of people simply living day-to-day. Brazilians love their beaches. They walk, jog, roller blade and bike along their gorgeous waterfronts. Those beautiful bodies, which enjoy the surf, are colorfully decked out in revealing suits, bronze bodies and hair that has escaped its bindings. There are endless games of volleyball, soccer volleyball (where you don’t use your hands) and just enjoying the sun in the hot sticky sky.
         As my taxi took me to the airport for the cool sum of $90 USD and Troy’s pricy taxi took him to his hotel to await his helo back to the rig, I reflected on my extreme good fortune at being able to make this trip and see another part of the world.
         As my big 767 jet lifted lightly off the ground,
I felt myself already wishing I could return to Rio. Away from it all, even for a few days is quite the restorative time. As the United jet headed across the rain forest into the inky night, I also marveled that you leave Rio at 10 pm Rio time and land in Houston at 5:30 am. That’s really pretty quick when you consider the 5820 miles that are traveled in a mere 10 hours of uncomfortable sleep. Sometimes as I drift off listening to the drone of the Rolls Royce engines in my plane, I think of the nightmare of the first settlers here encountered with the density of the rain forest. I imagine how impossible it would have been for them to grasp the size of the Rio area alone much less the whole country.
         If ever any of you have the opportunity to visit this glorious country filled with charming people, lush countryside, simply delicious food and gorgeous amethyst, blue and golden topaz and exotic tourmalines,
I hope you will take it!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

KS&L 285 The Spiritual Philosophy of What Constitutes a Good Mother

     Happy Mother's Day! Being a mom is complicated, challenging and rewarding. Enjoy your day!  

      Everyone comes here for the experience that mortal life offers, and that includes the experience of motherhood. Mothers are mortal; they make mistakes, get tired and rue certain days. Sometimes their judgment is cloudy; sometimes they do what their mothers did, even if it was a lousy thing to do.
         Mothers are often astonished at how profoundly difficult being a parent actually is and why, for some mothers, no matter what they do, their children do not respect them.
         Mothers very often do, not just what their mothers did, but what their lineage of women have done for easily a thousand years. This is true in sexual abuse cases: this is a family secret that just never heals, and that secret is the endless cycle of abuse. These women have no idea how to change the cycle. They know it has to change and they spend lifetimes waiting for someone else to make things better and to rescue them. Sometimes, women like this just really need to look in the mirror and recognize that the face of change they are seeking, is looking back at them. Truly, sometimes you just have to rescue yourself.
Some mothers insist their daughters blindly follow religious tradition, even if that tradition is cruel, abusive and archaic to everyone in general and to women specifically.
         Some mothers are afraid of motherhood, some are afraid of their children. Some are terrified that their children will not love them and become incapable of providing balanced discipline or any discipline at all.
         Some mothers are in competition with their children, be they male or female. They are so immature that they never see how smart their children are and that their children, are running intellectual circles around them.
         Some mothers detest motherhood and they make sure their children know it. They create guilt in their children so that their children spend endless amounts of useless time trying to make them happy:  truly the impossible dream.
         On-the-job training is normally the rule for most women and even most really smart women feel overwhelmed by a first baby. For others, the second child pushes them to the brink of sanity. Other women manage elegantly with ten children. Those ladies learned the true meaning of the word delegate responsibility to the older children!
         Mothers are mortal, get tired, make mistakes and forget that they are on an artificial pedestal that no one can ever really deserve. Every mother has a spiritual philosophy of what a good mother is and often they privately believe that they are inadequate. They suffer with this concept for a very long time.
         Death happens in families all over the world. Even an outstanding mother may falter, fall and feel crushed under the weight of grief at the personal loss of a family member. In some cases, she may not be allowed to grieve, but may be expected to keep the rest of the family going.
         Most women who become mothers either biologically, through marriage, and/or adoption have no idea what they are getting themselves into! Thank goodness! If any of them knew how really challenging motherhood is, many would opt out for another type of life. However, they don’t know. They can’t see the future and that is just as well.
         Would that it could be said, that all mothers love, but even that is not true. Most mothers learn to love not just their children, but the lives created by having children. Once you have a child, you become a different person because circumstances demand it. You don’t have a choice. If you stay the same then something is terribly wrong.
         If a woman hates motherhood, or never makes the transition into this new identity, then part of her will be miserable for the rest of her life and she will share her misery with most people she meets. She will make her family life nightmarish.
         Often a woman will note that she ‘did the best she could in her situation’. The truth is that when she says that, part of her is thinking deep inside that there may have been better ways for her to have handled many life situations. Other women who feel confident about their mothering experience will believe in themselves and note that they have done an excellent job and they are proud of themselves.
         Ultimately, every woman has a spiritual philosophy about what a good mother is but not every woman believes she can ever come close to living up to that level of excellence. How each woman meets the challenge of being a mother, of living up to that spiritual philosophy will ultimately define her spiritual path for this life time and all her life times to come.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Reflections on Brazil 2013 Part 2 by Tina Erwin

         Once we left the serious business of oil production in Macae’, we drove back to Rio to stay at the Leme Palace Hotel right on Copacabana beach. The beach is still just as clean, the umbrellas just as colorful as before and the people just as accommodating, laid back and friendly. We were blessed with three overcast days, which meant that the temperatures were a relatively ‘cool’ 80 degrees.
         Our first full day was spent in a wonderland that is the Rio Botanical Gardens. The entrance greets you with a long colonnade of Emperor Palms, which are two hundred years old. These 100-foot tall trees literally soar into the sky with their bushy tops gracefully shading the ground below. Your eye instantly follows the palm procession to a bonze cast 20’ tall fountain, which is one of the main focal points of the park.
         The air smells sweet with the fragrance of various blooming plants. Howler monkeys sit in the trees. Toucans, those gloriously colored birds hop about in branches over your head. Bromeliads are those unique ecosystems that nestle in cultivated groupings and end up clinging to various trees. Spanish moss drapes some trees while others find themselves wrapped in the pre-historic sized philodendron leaves, so large they are the size of two serving platters. There are clove trees growing along side the two hundred year old stands of bamboo.
         The bamboo grows about two feet (30cm) a day. Even the clumping bamboo will pretty quickly take over at that rate. I cannot imagine trying to contain running bamboo in this tropical environment. The park is so elegantly designed that there are lagoons with giant lily pads, so huge that they are almost three feet across with rare white ruffled lily flowers snuggled next to them. It is fascinating to see how they are anchored in the water.
         Our favorite spot was not the orchid house, there weren’t any or the carnivorous plant house which again was empty or even the healing herb garden. No, the most fascinating spot was the Brazilian Rain Forest that comes right up to the edge of the park.
         This part of the rain forest is called The Atlantic Forest. It marches down all the mountains in Rio to the sea. But it wasn’t always so lush. Early settlers cut all of the rain forest down to grow sugar cane and coffee. Gradually, the city completely ran out of water. A type of desertification began to take place because of poor farming practices. So, during the early 1800’s the emperor, unfortunately, using slave labor, realized that without the rain forest, there would never be water again. So he decided to remove all the sugar cane and coffee and replant all the hillsides all over Rio with rain forest plants. Gradually the rain forest restored itself with plants, undergrowth, vines, succulents, and bromeliads. The insects and birds returned. Nature found balance again and water returned to the city.
         A small aqua duct roughly 12” deep and 12” wide collects all the run off of rainwater, fog, and moisture from the rain forest and channels it to the waterfalls and other pathways around the park. Literally, the rainforest provides all the irrigation for the entire park with this aqua duct, which runs through the entire 200 acres.
         The waterways wind through the tall bamboo stands, the grove of fragrant clove trees, (every single clove leaf smells like clove!) Azalea bushes, every kind of tropical palm, breadfruit trees with their death defying fruit are visible everywhere. The fruit of this tree is gigantic, roughly 18-36” long and weighing in at 12-15 pounds. They grow out of the side of the tree, hanging securely by their sturdy stems. When one of them falls to the ground, you had better hope you are not standing nearby. That would also apply to the cannonball trees. It’s hard to describe a fruit like this that is perfectly round, the color of dried red mud and about 12” in diameter and very, very, heavy. Growing again, from the tree trunk, you might be able to see 40-50 of them. They weigh roughly 10 pounds each and woe unto any one underneath them when they fall.  Whenever cannonball or breadfruit falls, you can hear the ground shake.
         The Botanical gardens are a great way to spend a glorious day in Rio for the whopping entry fee of $3.00 a person. I think part of me needed to see that people can still love the land, still care for nature. Way too many homeowner associations and communities think nothing of cutting down two hundreds at once, and then wonder why their neighborhoods are hotter and neighbors are angry. Trees facilitate a peaceful environment.
         And Rio has trees. Each street has an entire canopy of trees that shade shoppers from the heat. These trees cool off the city, add grace and keep the air clean. Of course the thousands of buses and cabs all run on natural gas or a blend and pollution levels here are extremely low. Only in the many long tunnels do you ever smell car exhaust.
         The next day was just as blessedly cool so we went to one of the central markets in downtown Rio. I love to shop, especially in alleys, where the locals go. The buys are better and you find truly interesting things, many of which are not made in China! There were hat shops, bags, bars, flowers, umbrellas, and shoes. We had a great time just watching and getting the flavor of the city.
         That afternoon we took a walking tour to an upscale neighborhood called Santa Theresa. This wealthy area boasts $15million dollar castles for sale, that’s dollars! That $15million dollar castle needed another $15 million to retrieve it from the jungle. We trudged up and down this neighborhood with views of all of Rio. It would have been a blast had it not been raining and if the cobblestone streets had been easier to navigate in flip flops – an obvious mistake in my choice of foot ware. Rio is 546 years old and some of the streets in this very vertical residential area are easily nearing 200 years old. There is one interesting irony for those well-healed souls living in mansions clinging to the outside. The wealthy have a view of the favelas and those souls with barely running water and little piped out sanitation have a view of the mansions.
         Electrically, it’s a zoo. . . . . Dozens of lines running onto one pole and sometimes, there are live electric wires just laying in the street!
    Next Week Part 3