NONE OF THE ABOVE



Richard Pryor sure called it in a movie he made, where, to spend money like he needed to, put himself up for a city mayor’s position. When he found out he might be elected he begged off and chose to step down. Before a large audience, he had a huge fan club in the movie, he told them not to vote for him because he didn’t want the job. He said for everyone to take advantage of a situation where they could vote ‘none of the above’. The old guard did not get elected. There was no one at the helm, no one was there to govern. They would have to hold more elections until they found someone the people felt they could trust.
It is sincere bad luck that we don’t have that as an option in Canada. My-oh-my, those dear boys might then have to act like gentlemen and public speakers instead of the 2am gang on the corner.
Oh, goodee, an election coming up in Canada. Which of the kids are we going to let be the bullies in the kindergarten this time? [This is based on politicians and their actions and attitudes in Ottawa].
It is sincerely bad luck that we seem to have a system that doesn't know how to debate, just bully and block. This can be seen by the expressions used
once they are all elected. They don’t have to do anything else in a correct manner and seem disgusted that they have to answer, even a little bit, to the people through the media. The media forgot their lines and questions too, I guess.
I hope I live long enough to see them go through an entire elected party time period where the members actually debate, without the bullying, and put their points across because they have merit and not because of having more voices to heckle the opposition with.
I find it absolutely disgusting to think that the circus members we often see on television are actually running this country.
It used to be a part of electioneering to have public debates. The debates seem to have disappeared to a great extent. Is this because it wasn't needed or because political leaders would actually have to speak and debate before a live audience? Their attitudes and acting like a bully in that arena would almost guarantee that they would not be elected.
The potential prime ministers should ‘have’ to hold live debates across the country. The country is not made up of only Quebec and Ontario. There are a whole mess of us who live across the entire country, east coast, and west of Ontario. Our votes count too ‘don’t they’? Maybe we should just let you guys hammer it out in Ontario and Quebec? We could then have another election to elect someone with the good grace to address us, the voters in the majority of the country.
It would be nice too if the media would all leave the political football alone during an election period. Who??? Why, the news media of course. Did you actually think that they have an unbiased and ‘all’ the news mentality? Heck, no. They might want to get elected sometime and might need the boost of some of these politoddlers. I don’t suppose for one minute that the power behind the news, haha, would appreciate hardcore journalism. Nope!!!

They would probably fire the reporter trying to give us ‘all’ of the news. But at least we know they are in the pocket of only two of the major parties, liberals and conservatives. How? Why, just read and listen to the phraseology they use and how most of it is negative to only one party. They actually fear the NDP. I have no idea why, but it is ingrained on both of the mainline parties. They would probably like us to believe that they fear a social-ist party in power. Communism! Brrr! What a line of bs that would be.
In the last several years the NDP have been helping the Liberals and Conservatives by ‘not’ being the people we want them to be, on the side of the average person [voter].
I am looking hard to find the ‘good fairie’ to wave their wand and have all of those politicians looking out for us. I doubt if these guys can actually do anything at all, any of them, but hopefully they won’t damage our rights and freedoms, and that they won’t lead us into a war. That’s not so far-fetched today is it?
Good luck to us all.

COMING OF AGE PART 4

10

For two days and nights
A watch was kept over old Elijah
By the medicine man
His new spirit warriors
Chanted before the house
Raising a prayer
Adding a strand of sweet grass
To the fire near them
With each new prayer
As their spirits bade them to
The spirits communicated
By the power of the spirit world
We had just returned from
Soon they would be silent guides again
When the sun began to set on the second day
They shouted as Elijah came out
Folding back the hide of his entranceway
He seemed like a new man to the young warriors
They whispered among each other
Elijah grunted to the men before him
He said only “I am hungry”
The medicine man and the young warriors
Each took a turn to touch Elijah
Saying only that it was good
What a happy feast took place then
They praised the success of the spirit journey
The spirit world had again been confirmed
The world was indeed good
With Elijah still here to enjoy it
The earth mother generous
Even the priest’s nod was happy
For he had arrived
After the feast had begun
He took Elijah by the shoulders
Saying, thank God
With tears of anguish on his face
He could not accept our journey
He said only one thing that night
That all of us could agree with
That God is mightier than any man
Might ever know
In that we could all praise God with him
The priest added that God in his great wisdom
Had affirmed His Greatness
Through one of his people
Allowing Elijah more time
To be with and teach his family and others
In the end, the hospital doctors could only say
That they must have mistaken Elijah’s condition
Ah well, not all can believe everything, everywhere
As some would never know the spirit world
That is sad indeed.

………………………………………………………………

11

In my own life
A quiet period followed
As I sought to become
More one with my world
In all of its intricacies
I found my guides taking turns
Accompanying me on sleep trips
To strange places
The great wolf taking me deep into the forest
Up high mountains
Into ancient caverns with strange drawings
The art of the ancestors
Giving accounts of great hunts
The danger of strange animals
Still others about their lives, and deaths
The great eagle would come too
Teaching me to fly with my inner soul
Saying perhaps one day I would do it in my world
We went to far corners of the world
He introduced me to the crow
To the hawk and to the owl
Who in turn taught me many things
About life, about the hunt
One night he took me higher
Higher than at any other time
We seemed to be under strange clouds
Like fine gossamer sheets
More like spider webs than cloth
He said to me that one day
He and I would go beyond the veils
To find my special teacher
Of the upper worlds
He said, for now be content
And more, he showed me
Where ancient gods had walked
Giving ancient wisdom to ‘the people’
The great bear would come as well
Introducing me to great animals
The moose, deer, cougar and elk
He showed me the rightness
Of the original food chain
How we are all dependent
On every other one of us
In time, he said, that
With intelligence we would, in time
Be as all of these.

……………………………………………………………….

12


I began to speak to the birds
To the rabbits and other creatures too
Their not being afraid of me
It seemed that they understood
For they would sit
Listen to me speak
Make some gesture
Whether it was a sound
Or perhaps a movement
I learned quickly
Whether they spoke to me
Or were simply afraid
Afraid of the man creature so near
I could feel within myself
That if my soul were at peace
With the natural world
That was all around me
Then the animals I met
Were at peace as well
And even a deer stood
Quietly by my path
He seemed to silently speak to me
I asked him if he were a spirit
He seemed to say no he wasn’t
But he made me know
That we were brothers
Sharing all of the bounty
Of the mother, perhaps in different ways
Everything serving a purpose
Which only He could do and understand
I marveled at the wisdom
Of the medicine man
For he had said this to me
Now I began to truly understand
I would sit in my chosen spirit place
There by the brook
Speak and share feelings
With any and all who came by
Many different animals came
Came and held council with me
I learned much about my world
Sitting by my spirit brook
I knew that someday
I would teach.
…………………………………………………………………………

beyond atomization

The theory of atomization as I see it is based on the smallest element/particle on and around our world/universe, seeing man as the ultimate creation. Well, it is…….to us. But what can we see if we look beyond and within ourselves.


WHO ARE WE THAT WE THINK WE ARE


Why must we be more than the beings we see before us? What makes it possible for us to think that we are special? Why must we alone be God’s creatures? Could there be a clue to our worth here? Can we imagine God on a scale suggested here?
The beings that I see and call human beings are much less than the hype we give ourselves in feeling superior to everything under ‘our’ sun. Children of any god that I want to be considered with is a good god, one who has taught his children how to survive together, grow together, live together, sharing instead of taking. My god will smile at the loving children he has created. I can’t say that now, can you?
The theory of atomism presented here, up to and including the 7,000 year cycle and ‘big crunch’, with us at the top is an interesting theory. It still leaves us, however, as being possibly more than we are, and it suggests more to the atom than ever. It also leaves the possibility of our being less than we are.
If we take The Theory of Atomism a few steps further, we can surmise, within the same topic, the idea and suggestion that there is much more to the theory than some can possibly contemplate.
If we take a being, and the same is true for the structure of the human being, and as such, start from the surface of the being, and go inward and microscopic, or yet without and go outward and macrocosmic.
Let’s call this being ‘X’. ‘X’ is a being who is contemplating the universe as he sees it. He is looking into smaller and smaller parts of himself, comparing it to the universe at large. Now ‘X’ begins to look within the smaller parts of himself and looks at the microbes, the germs, what he sees as the elements of life itself. Should he go even smaller yet, he may see the virus as an integral part of his system.
Now, let us look at his ‘system’. At the atomic level, he may see protons, neutrons, electrons. Now, should’X’ take this as his microscopic start point, what does he see? He begins to see an accumulation of particles gathered into groups by magnetic attraction as galaxies. Each one has a system of particles which we can call solar systems.
He has arrived at a sub-atomic area now. We can see beyond or into these solar systems as well as galaxies, and begin to see individual parts of the system, noting that there are many types of parts, each with individual characteristics.
This is exciting. He begins to dig even deeper. There are strange groupings of particles. There are many types of particles here. It is like looking at the universe as a whole.
What does ‘X’ do now? He has discovered that there is life on the germs and virus’ of his body.
‘X’ cannot resist the mystery. He goes still deeper and smaller. What he once saw as that point from which life rises,the atoms of his structure, has fallen apart. It is not the beginning after all. He is now seeing an astonishing reality. On each of these particles that he discovers, there are growing masses, some singular, many made of complicated parts.
What can they be? ‘X’ is excited. He begins to search these complicated parts. What can it all mean? If they are indeed beginnings of germs, of disease, then that should be it, but it isn’t.
One could say that ‘X’ suddenly becomes aware of more than himself. He is in the presence of an entire universe. It is himself. The microbes and other such particles are being seen with their own characteristics. They move independently.
A truth that is beyond comprehension begins to shout out from his exploration. He is a universe. There are universes within him. There are galaxies within these universes. How many? Unimaginable as well. The truth begins to come out. ‘X’ is speechless. He does not have a faith anymore, in anything, except one thing. There is a much greater and smaller being than himself.

As ‘X’ looks within himself and begins exploring the basis for his being, he suddenly became aware of still smaller particles and beings. What to do? Should he expound on his theory? Should he give it to the world? Should he be silent and continue the search? He began to imagine how his theory might be seen to the masses, and in particular, to those masses controlled and lead by unseeing and blind leaders. He knew that they would say he blasphemed. There is nothing beyond himself but God.
What a shock to fragile egos, to find that he is merely a speck of a speck, being carried within the body of a being so huge that our minds could not contemplate it. To see that being as a speck of a speck of a still larger being, possibly onward beyond even the wildest imaginings. Still yet a system unimaginably smaller. In that he might still feel superior.
‘X’ realizes at last that there could be a being which is greater than himself .
He tried to fathom it all. He is sure now that he cannot even imagine the total of particles, layers of particles, and indeed layers of beings. ‘X’ now knew that he could not act haphazardly towards his own body anymore. To do so would be unconscionable. How many universes known and unknown depend on it for their life and the life on them?
The truth that there are smaller universes than his own and that he may be the power that creates or destroys worlds, is unsettling to say the least. He could see and imagine a position of god, creator and destroyer of worlds. That is, if he chooses to see that way, narrow as it still is. ‘X’ is silent. He suddenly realizes that he may be that subatomic particle of a particle in some other creature. How does one feel so smug when he finds out that he is more than he thought but less than he is. That is an interesting conundrum.
There! Now the sci-fi writers may advance in confidence that they will never run out of subject matter, how rather it has increased his potential and scope beyond all limits we might know as ‘the rule’.
Is this so strange a thought process. How long ago was it that the atom was the smallest particle, or the germ, or the ant. Can one imagine how far this could conceivably go. Could it be that there truly is no beginning or end for life as we know it.

coming of age part 3

The dance began at dusk
Drummers chanting
Beating out the pace
Women chanted too
Songs older than time itself
The medicine man appeared
A clay pot in hand
The circle closed in on him
And as they did so, to the beating drums
So danced the medicine man
About the fire in the center
Calling upon the earth mother
To guide them in their task
When the medicine man was ready
Or the earth mother spoke to him
He raised his hands
The dancers stopped
The drumming became slow and soft
Chanting slowly as he did so
He approached the first of the young men
From the bowl he withdrew
A woven length of sweet grass
From the fire a burning ember
The sweet grass caught
Glowing as the medicine man blew on it
The young men then washed themselves
In the sweet, cleansing smoke of the sweet grass
Freeing them of any bad spirit influences
Not good for quest, young men, or Elijah
When the ceremonies were finished
The medicine man approached the bonfire
Offering the sweet grass to the four winds
Then tossed it into the middle of the fire
The dancing became very earnest, meaningful
As young men sought their own spirit guides
Were at last joined with them
The medicine man waved to the drummers
Spirit guides could be seen dimly
Entering their chosen young men
All manner of beast was there
The medicine man’s signal changed the drums again
The new beat was a victory dance
It exploded everywhere
It was very short
It was done.

………………………………………………………………..

8

With the rising of the sun
Young men made their way to a spot nearby
Every one was assigned a place
In a spirit canoe that no one could see
A young man with strong spirits
Was chosen to be in a place of honor
The bow
The medicine man would be to the rear
To help guide the spirit canoe
To its destination, the Underworld
The medicine drum began to beat, slowly
Monotonously
Fading and growing as the last man arrived
Old Elijah would make the journey with us
They carried him in a ceremonial stretcher
With woven sweet grass
Carefully, he was layed out on the canoe
Carefully layed out at the center
The drums changed
Our spirits began to rise with the drums
In that raised consciousness
The canoe was a reality
Shock on several faces to the reality of it
As each one of us felt and then saw
The paddles in our hands
The medicine man called for us to begin
The bow man set the pace with his drum
The medicine drum joined the ceremony
Faces faded about the canoe
As we entered the spirit world
Beneath the mother earth

Strangely, we were beneath the ground
In a river seemingly with no current
It being up to those in the canoe
To decide which way they must go
Which way we must return was firmly set
On each
Muscles were beginning to ache
When suddenly were again under a sun
But not our own sun, we had arrived.


………………………………………………………………………

9

We could no longer see the drummer
But its sounds pierced the unknown
Accompanying us on our journey
Under the strange sun
The medicine man began an eery chant
One none of us had ever heard
Somehow, it reminded me of a bubbling brook
The one I had come to know and respect
Suddenly and silently
An old stag came into view the shore by us
He stopped, we stopped
The medicine man speaking to the stag
“He whom you guide misses you
He needs his brother, the stag
The spirit that is his life
Come and rejoin Elijah, our brother
If not, he will join the shades
Searching for you far and near
We have need of our brother”
He made motions with his hands
Finally cupping them at last
About his own mouth
We could see as he took in the breath
So too did he take into himself
The stag
Who sang his thanks and admiration
He then turned to Elijah, and smiled
“Your spirit has come back for you
It only asks but one small thing
No longer ignore your nephews
Answer their questions
Be their teachers of the old ways”
The old man nodded
As the medicine man dropped to his knees
Bending towards the old man
Where he drew in a deep breath
Cupping his hands
Putting his cupped hands on Elijah
He bent into them
Blowing for all he was worth
Blowing the stag from himself to the old man
A light appeared in Elijah’s eyes
We could see that life had indeed returned
Taking his position again in the canoe
He turned the canoe for home
The journey back began, following the drums
We were again among our own people
It was done.

COMING OF AGE PART 2

4

I did not know how I had changed
I only knew that I had
No doubt, no uncertainty
The brook began speaking to me
Speaking of his history
Yes, and mine
Of the journey that I had begun
Where I would journey to
Of the teachers I would meet
Within this world and beyond it
And as I sat there, absorbed in it all
My brothers of another time
Filed into the clearing nearby
Gathering firewood
As women built temporary shelters
For everyone
As the sun began to set
A roaring fire began to speak and spit
In the center of the field
The men, the young and the very old
Began dancing and chanting
Lifting voice and soul
To all that men call God
Puzzled, because the dance
Was a victory dance
Honoring the quest I had just begun
The ancient ones feasted and danced
‘Til the sun again began to rise
The fire and the dancers began to fade
Into, becoming a part of, the morning mist
Again I was alone, but I now knew
That I ‘was’ a chosen one, knew that
There was a reason for my life
A task or tasks that I must accomplish
I rejoiced in my heart
No man could ever tell me
There was no spirit world
There was no God
For all that they may not be near
I knew I would never be alone.

……………………………………………………………………………

5

As I walked the path over the creek
Through the forest to my home
A voice beside and behind said warmly
You have met your guides
Your journey has begun
Wah, I said, nodding, it is so
I said no more but walked to my home
Ignoring others who spoke
Finding voices somehow irritating
In the moment, they did not belong
Compared to all that I had witnessed
The gentle sounds that I heard
I entered my home and sat
Watching the women scurry about
Doing the everyday chores, singing and chatting
I saw these mothers, mothers to be
My heart swelled with a sense of respect
I could compare them to the earth mother
Indeed, I sensed a relationship
Between the earth mother and all mothers
Of man, of animals and fish, even the insects
Why, I thought
Could I not see all of this before now
It now seemed so obvious
All connected in subtle ways
Unseen by blind and greedy men
Intent on a wealth they cannot hold
Beyond the moment
Losing the natural fortune around us
The value of that life
The spiritual value of all things
In their time and their place
They are unable to stop, I think
From their mad pace
To smell, taste, feel, the life of spirit
That is around us always
Waiting to teach us life’s truths.

…………………………………………………………………

6

Old Elijah was sick
The doctors from the white hospital
Said “it is only a matter of time”
He sensed that the elders would gather
This evening, with the medicine man
Who said, angrily, it was time
Time to try the old ways
Local priests pooh, poohed the idea
Superstition from the past
They warned the elders about making God angry
I found it strange that a God of love
Would be angry
With the natural healing aboriginal way
To heal the sick
I think no one believed the priests
Felt the priests did not know their own God
After the meeting with spokesmen of the church
It was sad to see fear in the walk even of the elders
Uncertain where they truly stood
Yet more afraid of their medicine man
That they could see
Rather than the priests unseen God
A healing circle
Would be held next day
After the medicine man prepared his spirit
For the healing journey and ordeal before them
Strong young men, as I was
Were chosen to accompany the medicine man
On the spirit journey to seek out
The lost spirit or spirits of old Elijah
Begging them to return to him, give him life
I waited
Breathing in the excitement
Finding myself chosen to be part of this journey
Cleansing ceremonies would be held
That evening, preparing our own spirits
My heart seemed to say to me, “it is good.”

……………………………………………………………