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We have a relationship with everything in our lives. Relationship dynamics are not often discussed and less understood. Our individual perspective/reality meshes with others perspective/reality forming a relationship dance that few understand, are aware of, respect or honor.

This site is about exploring relationships of all kinds so that we can all become more consciously aware of the inner workings of relationships, be they human, animal, nature, or our place in the Universe.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Prey turns into the Hunter

a muse about the recent killing of Osama Bin Laden

by Prissy Hamilton




I've been watching the news about Osama bin Laden, now for several hours. From the first 5 minutes I felt uncomfortable about it, something was wrong.


My impression as the news media went on talking about joy, jubilation and closure, it does not feel right, does not feel balanced to me. Yes, the man that popular opinion says was responsible for thousands of deaths is dead himself now. Is it about revenge or is it about retaliation or is it the false impression that the terror mongers will now be ceased?


I'm unsure how many people realize that when Russia was fighting in that area, Osama bin Ladin was instrumental in helping or aiding Russia and the United States. He was on our side. It was brought out in the Iran Contra Arms exposure that he was involved and in a way that had 'helped' us. It was also stated that when Russia and United States didn't need him any longer, we walked away from him leaving him 'twisting' in the wind. At that time he vowed to 'get us' and on 9/11 the twin towers fell and, apparently Osama bin Laden took credit for it.


Still, there is something very wrong with a nation that parties due to someone's death - no matter who that person was or what he had done. It produces no closure. It doesn't bring back the loved ones that died, it doesn't soothe the soul, it has no glorious value, and is not healing at all on any level. Retaliation, revenge is never the right answer. It breeds more retaliation and revenge. That is the nature of it.


So with all that in mind, one has to ask the question. 'What's next?' After the short lived joy has been expressed, after the news media lets go of it and moves on to something else, what happens emotionally to those that were caught up in the gala? What happens to the people that lost loved ones through all the attacks and horror. Are they healed, are they less sad about their loss, do they feel vindicated, does it make everything all right again?


Osama used his religion as an excuse for his violence. He also said he wanted us out of his country. Our excuse from what we were told was that he hated freedom, that he was responsible for the killing of thousands of our people. Who is right and who is wrong? If you look at it from a broader view, both are right. Both, in their own eyes, feel justified and correct. Each side thinks the other is evil, but are they? Seems to me, evil, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


OK, Osama bin Laden is dead. Does that mean that terror will end? I think not and anyone who thinks otherwise is very naive and coming from a place of anger and hate, not from a place of truly wanting to stop that terror and violence. It is a vicious circle when it is dealt with in that way.


There is a third way. People don't seem to ponder that very much and it isn't talked about or discussed. If we truly want to stop the hate, the violence, what can we do to really, if not stop it all together, at least to curb it and make it unacceptable to all?


The taking of a life, any life is uncomfortable to me emotionally. It just is. I'm not a pacifist by any stretch of the imagination. If someone attacked me, at that moment of attack I would pull up every ounce of fight I had available to me. That is called defense. That is the lion wanting me for lunch and all my instincts would be on high alert in the defense of my life. That is much different from hunting someone down in revenge or retaliation. That is turning into the lion yourself. There is another way, let's start talking about that!




Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Muse on Religion

Been thinking a lot about the Christian religion lately. The history of it, what exactly it means, how it has changed through the ages, all the different sects, rites, dogmas and beliefs that go along with it. All the many little branches and sprouts that have come from it. It is a fascinating subject and has many facets to it.


I don't pretend to be a scholar, not even a really deep thinker, but I do have a few thoughts and muses about this subject since lately it seems to have come to the forefront of my mind I thought I would share them.


First, I decided to look up a few key words in Webster's New World Dictionary just to clarify the meanings to myself. I'll share them with you:


Religion: 'reverence for the gods, holiness in a system of religious belief. Belief in divine or superhuman powers or power to be obeyed and worshiped as creators and rulers of the universe.'


Christian: 'a person professing belief in Jesus as the Christ, or in the religion based on the teachings of Jesus. Having the qualities demonstrated and taught by Jesus Christ, as love, kindness, humility, etc.'


Seems to me that the Christian religion sprang up as an off shoot of the Jewish religion. The Christians took the man, Jesua bin Joseph and renamed him Jesus the Christ. Why? Because somebody said that he performed miracles. Of course, that 'somebody' didn't actually know Jesus and, in fact lived over 100 years after the death of Jesus. Right there ought to tell even the superficial thinker that something is wrong.


If I, for instance, wanted to pick out a person that lived 100 years prior to me and make them into something amazing, I don't think it would be too difficult, especially if I played on deep seeded human emotional fears. Many people have done it since, that is how the Mormons came about, the Church of Religions Science, the Baptist, just to name a few and this doesn't even go into all the many 'cults' that have come and gone along the ages taking with them hundreds of thousand of people. Jim Jones comes to mind. And then there are the Pat Robertsons, who are obviously delusional and psychologically a mess that charge even earth events into some kind of punishment from God.


Then, we have the bible or should I say bibles, for there are many of them. Many translations, many editions, written and rewritten until the original meanings are long lost. Of course, we wouldn't even have the texts of any kind if it weren't for the Essenes. None the less, the original meanings are completely gone having been misconstrued several times over. The Catholic Church, for instance, revised it and took a lot of the original chapters out of it, and changed many of the words. That part they took out is touted to be the Gnostic Gospels.


The whole belief structure of religion, the bases of which it is founded, the many people who profess they were told by God, or Jesus or angels or whoever have had their impact on human kind. It seems to me that they all, bar none, have had this power over people because they play on common deep seeded human fears. They play into the weakness of people and people give them their personal power because people don't trust themselves.


It is a mass manipulation of sorts, for control and for power. It also plays into the psychology that if I can make you dumber than me, then that will make me smarter. That in itself is a fairly stupid thing to think, but none the less it is a mind set of many.


It is that whole 'master' syndrome. The truth is, the real master, doesn't know he/she is a master and doesn't care. The real teacher doesn't know or consider him/herself to be a teacher and doesn't care. The real master is too busy learning and participating in his/her life. The real teacher is too busy and compassionate about the students learning and learning from the students to even consider that he/she has all the answers.


It is so ironic. Who said, 'beware of false images?' Who said, 'know thy self?'


There are certain things in human nature that just have to be accepted as part of what is. One of those things is that no one knows more about you than you. Now, if you chose not to get to know yourself, not to search yourself and not to respect who you are, and allow someone else to judge, jury and promote you as they see fit, then that is your right. But to go out and try to convince other's that they, too, are 'sinners' and bad people and need to do what you say and do is something quite different.


All through the ages, people, fellow human beings have been tortured, and killed in the most horrific ways because of their inner beliefs. These wonderful Christians have judged people and burned them alive, been so brutal that I can barely even think about it.


And they are still at it today. In different ways, but they still hold high that banner that says, 'I know the way and if you don't do it my way, I will harm you. I will make laws against your ways, I will make laws to hold up my end of the argument and force you to bend to the things I think are correct.' They are doing that with the abortion laws, with the gay rights, and with the health care laws. They are doing it with Planned Parenthood not wanting contraceptives taught and given out, they are doing it with the origin of the universe, science, etc. Believe me, it may be more subtle these days, but it is still brutal. And this is all coming from those wonderful 'Christians'. They are acting the opposite to what the definition of their religions say they should act.


What is it that we give our power away so easily? Why is it that we think someone else knows better than us about ourselves? Why don't we bother to find out what our inner being truly thinks and feels? Why don't we trust who we are, and allow ourselves to learn from ourselves and trust ourselves for the correct answers for us? If we got to know ourselves in the most honest way that we could, it seems to me we would stop judging others, we would respect others more and we wouldn't be so quick to jump on the condemnation boat.


Like I said earlier, I don't consider myself any more knowledgeable than anyone else and less knowledgeable than some, but what I do know is that what I learn from myself, what I muse upon, what I contemplate is much more valuable to me, my life and the way I treat others than anything any religion can convince me of. I struggle with the questions within myself like everyone else. But I'll be damned if I'm going to allow anyone to convince me that I need to follow their way. That, to my mind will only lead down their road, and I've my very own road which suits me better than anyone else's possibly ever could.



Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Adult Bully

- Prissy Hamilton © January 2011



The adult bully is all around us. You can hear and see them on TV, you can read about them in books, spot them in your own personal life and every place in between.


They are the ones with the overgrown false egos that want to control and manipulate everything and everybody. They are the ones who state that they know best. They are the ones that can tell you what you should do and how to do it and if you would only live your life like they say, you would have smooth sailing and happy, healthy times.


They feed off the fear of others with a frenzy and love it when they have others that they can manipulate and control. It energizes them for they can briefly con themselves into thinking they are worthy.


Bully's come in all sizes, all shapes and all genders. They love to walk into situations, overwhelm everyone with their inflated egos and start strutting like Banty roosters. They feel it necessary to take over. They can be charming on one hand and very manipulative and judgmental on the other. They can lead you down a path of self destruction if you allow them to and they can excite crowds like few others.


The bully has no true self esteem of their own. They think very little of themselves and therefore try to convince themselves that they really are knowledgeable and have something to offer by scaring other folks into listening to and believing in them. Then they can say, 'Oh, I have a following so I must be right.'


They depend on something outside themselves to prove themselves wrong about what they really feel about themselves. What they really feel is that they aren't worth much, and they think they don't have an effect on the world around them.


Seems to me that the bully doesn't bother to even contemplate for one second who they really are. They are running scared of finding out, too. Sure they act secure within themselves, but it is a false front. Truth were to be known, they are fragile. They have no honest, solid foundation about themselves. This allows them to switch on a dime and come at others from a different direction. They use distraction and feed into the cavities of others filling it with false judgments and often times cruel understandings.


Recently this appears rampant on the planet and in particular in the United States. It is extremely obvious in the political arena. The political entities are supposed to be on the side of the general public. They are selected by the majority of the people to work for the people, for the good of the majority. They are thought or assumed to be able to critical think, solve problems and conflicts, but lately they are a source of division. They are name calling, telling untruths, and are vicious and non respectful to other human beings.


It has become the us and them mentality, much like at a sports event.


There is a void of common decency, a void of respect. They seem to be running a muck in our society today. Many people notice but few know what to do about it. Lord knows, I don't. What I do know is that they feed on fear. So being scared of them, bullied by them is the worse possible thing you can do because it inflates them and eggs them on.


The question is, what don't they feed on and what scares them? Now there is the question and the answer is fairly easy in coming. If you are secure within yourself, if you know who you are and like yourself, they are frightened and stay away from you. Why? Because they know that you know the truth about them and cannot be manipulated into thinking otherwise. That is how you treat frightened out of control children and that is exactly what they appear to be.