Gradual

A good day to all of the Brethren out there on this fine Sunday afternoon.  

On Friday, I had an opportunity to take care of an overdue errand, namely, having new tires installed on the Rev-mobile.  It seems that tires fall into that category of things that get bad so gradually, we almost don't notice the process.  I have to admit, the ride in the Rev-mobile was getting louder, and, as the tires wore out, the balance was off.  The balance issue got to the point that the front end had a little shimmy.  The whole process, however, was so gradual that I almost took the sorry state of the Rev-ride for granted.  

Driving away from our hard-working Brothers at the tire shop, I was amazed at the difference.  Night and Day, Sisters and Brothers, Night and Day!  

This brings to mind that story of the boiling frog.  The anecdote is that a frog, placed in a pot of water on a stove, won't notice the increased heat of the water if it the water is heated gradually.   Never mind that modern biologists have refuted the notion, citing experiments that show the frog will simply jump out rather than turn into a nasty frog soup.  The story has become the poster child description for anyone of us who stay in a bad situation too long.

You might ask "Rev, what in Dog's holy name are you blathering about?" and you would be justified in doing so.  Well, Brethren, I will tell you what I am blathering about.  Some processes are so gradual that we cannot see the deleterious effects of the process until it is almost too late to recover.  Such, good Brethren, can be the nature of consumer debt.  

A hard working Sister or Brother is doing the best they can to make ends meet.  The economy slows down  or maybe the hours get cut at work.  Gas prices go up and the budget gets strained.  Whatever the reason, the credit card comes out to bridge the gap, but at the end of the month, the bill can't be paid off.  Well, we made it through this month, we will just have to knock that bad boy down at the end of next month.  Meanwhile, a few more of life's little irony sticks come to rest up against the head of our Brethren and the credit card gets used again.  We make the minimum payment, the household is secure for the month, but in the background, that water is getting warmer and warmer as the balance grows on the debt while we are only paying off the interest, if that.   Without too much time passing, we could find ourselves hitting the $11,000 national average for consumer debt.  Now, dear Brethren, we have a long, hard row to hoe to pay that monster down.  

What we are talking about today, as we have been for a while, is the awareness of debt.  I believe that is is fundamental to our purposes for all of the Brethren to have a full awareness of the nature of debt, and of the slippery paths for falling into debt.  Without an understanding of how we got into the mire of consumer debt, it is going to be difficult to start the process of getting out of the mire.

We are back around to it:  we have to see the chains, and know what the chains are, before we can break the damn things and lives of freedom.  When we strike the blow, Bothers and Sisters, we have to know what we are striking, we have to know where to aim.  I believe that raising our awareness of debt, and the process of indebtedness, is one of the most important tools we can develop in out struggle for personal financial freedom.

Enjoy you Sunday Sisters and Brothers.  Live large, live strong, be well, and strike a blow!

That Which Doesn't Kill Us...

All of the Brethren know what it is like to get whopped up side the head with a big branch of the old Irony Tree.  It is like the time that a Brother, after scrimping and saving, manages to get a new set of tires on the family car.  Two days later, someone totals the car.  The Brother walks away unscathed, and is thankful for it, don't you know, but the rig goes away and with it, the new rubber.  You know that the Insurance Downpressor, he doesn't give a hoot about those new tires when he writes out that skimpy settlement check.  That rubber could have lasted two more days and that $ 600 might still be in a pocketbook closer to hand.

Once upon a time, a truly remarkable friend and I were mulling over the existence of the working person's irony, and the occasional poundings that were dished out as a result.  Like many a wiser feller and feller-ette  before us, across the sands of time, we decided that we would invent a cosmology to explain the origin of the regular ass-kicking that people take when they get too comfortable.  I am sure, My Brethren, that you have experienced the ass-kick that I am referring too.  It starts in hundred dollar increments, and goes up based on the seriousness of the wake-up call that an individual Sister or Brother has been courting.

What came of these mullings was the concept of the Universal Tool Shed, also know as the UTS.  Now, when you picture the UTS, it can look like whatever one of the Brethren envision it to be.  For our purposes, the UTS was a smallish wooden shed, a little dilapidated but in a trendy, Sunset magazine sort of way.  Country Chic on the outside, pure Universal capriciousness on the inside.  Vines were growing up the side of of it and it had a door that had to be lifted slightly to get it to open.  Inside the UTS, however, were big, heavy, blunt instruments waiting to be wielded by the ever watchful Universe. 

Now this is where one can fill in any sort of deity one wishes because, after all, its just a cosmology.  Go crazy.  For our version of the UTS, my friend and I posited, well, a Universe.  The Universe, actually.  The Universe has a very quirky sense of humour, delighting in meting out the proper reward for smugness, complacency or, even better, a lack of mindfulness.  When, in its omnipotence, the Universe notes a particularly cocky individual needing a little wake-up smack, it saunters (the U never hurries) over to the shed, lifts the door open, and calmly peruses the options.  Will it be a shovel, a spade, an ax handle?  Perhaps a pickaroon or a pulaski?  Small dalliances with lack of awareness might only require a bash with a broom, but Dog help the Brother or Sister who deserves the post-hole diggers.

Having been a somewhat regular recipient of lessons via the UTS, I now have a modicum of understanding  about the workings of the U.  If, for example, a lazy Brother, such as myself works hard to find a calm place in life, mercifully devoid of the opportunities for growth, well, the U has to intervene, does it not.  If there is one thing the UTS cannot abide, its coasting.  So, with an almost smirky little grin, just bordering on reluctance but not really, the UTS is utilized to dispense a fine whacking to said Brother, knocking him back into the stream of growth.  

In our cosmology, The Universe is, indeed capricious, but only because it knows better than we.  It sees us when were sleeping, it knows when we're awake.  There is an air of benevolence, a strong sense of righteous "this-is-for-your-own-good" type aura that surrounds The U just as it is wielding its blunt weapon of choice down upon our heads.  

I have yet to evolve to the point of appreciating the smack of something heavy out of the UTS.  But, these days, as I rub my noggin, I can recognize the sign of a master at work.  It is only through awareness that I can hope to evade the Downpressor and his snares of consumerism.  And it is only through a heightened group awareness that we can work together to defeat the Downpressor, rather than just eluding him.  It is nice to know that, anymore,  I won't be asleep at the wheel too long before I will feel the loving touch of the UTS, banging me back to consciousness.

Meanwhile Sisters and Brothers, Be Awake, Be Strong, and Strike a Blow!  

Listening

The Rev is currently struggling with the Downpressor and his ilk and will return to the blog as soon as the battle permits.  In the meantime, the Rev invites you to listen to a fine group of activist musicians who are striking a tuneful blow, our Sisters and Brothers at Jazzanova.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZZ3Ig_Ovpw

Davids and Slings

The Reverend is soaking up the first real sunshine of spring.  In this interlude, I give this small offering of a singing David whacking a corporate Goliath.

Sometimes you just have to smite them good.  Many of you have probably seen this, but check out the follow-up songs number Two and Three.  Fun stuff and a tip of the Rev Lid to Dave Carroll

http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/music/ubg/song1/

The Rev will be back shortly, fear not.

The Hunger

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters!  The Reverend hopes that this day finds each of us stronger and freer, and living large amongst our Brethren.  Tonight, I would like to talk about the fundamental path that leads us to the pitfall of consumerism.  That path is the path of desire.

Before we go further, let us reiterate our goal.  We are not seeking to renounce the world and worldly good, nor are we urging folks to run out into the desert to subsist on honey and locusts.  There are enough conservation issues in desert ecosystems without a bunch of us running around in the sun, acting like dogmatic nincompoops.  Our goal is to bring about a greater level of personal freedom amongst our Brethren.  We seek to do this by reducing our consumer debt, and by doing so reduce our dependence on the very corporate culture that seeks to blind us and enslave us.  

I am here to spread the word, Sisters and Brother!  There is good cargo, the stuff that makes our lives comfortable, that good that keep our loved ones clothed and fed and warm.  There is nothing wrong with the things that provide ourselves and our communities with a level of existence that allows us to become better human beings and more evolved citizens of the world.  

When we acquire goods for the benefit that the goods themselves can render, we strike a balance between desire and need, consumption and benefit.  When, however, we stray from that balance and acquire the cargo for its own sake, for the prestige of ownership, or to try to fill a void in our lives, we lose our balance.  In our consumer-oriented society, where we are constantly bombarded with messages encouraging the pursuit of cargo, the balance that we seek is often put to the test.  

I can testify to the travails a human can suffer when placed between the anvil of desire, and the hammer of unchecked spending.  It is all too easy to consume beyond ones means in an effort to placate that desire.  The result is debt, something that, unfortunately, many of our Sisters and Brothers are passing familiar with.  

This is not a new problem.  Many a wiser feller than myself has tackled the human trait of desire.  These wise teachings come from around our wide world and across the sands of time.  Here are just a few of them. 

From the Buddhist tradition, we can read this pearl, which has become one of my personal favorites.  I value the idea of the object, and the person that desires the object, disappearing.

Grasping at things can only yield one of two results:
Either the thing you are grasping at disappears, or you yourself disappear.
It is only a matter of which occurs first.
Goenka

From the wisdom of Islam, we may read and learn from this:

Have you seen him who makes his desire his god, and God sends him astray purposely, and seals up his hearing and his heart, and sets on his sight a covering? Who, then, will lead him after God [has condemned him]? Will you not then heed?

Qua'ran 45.23

Perhaps the folks at Haliburton should take a gander at a verse from the Bible:

What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

James 4, 1-3

Then there is this pithy pearl from Judaism:

Envy and desire and ambition drive a man out of the world.

Mishnah, Abot 4.28

Sisters and Brothers, it is not the cargo that is the cause of our despair.  We do not renounce the goods of the world which ease our lives and bring us comfort.  And yet, and yet Brethren, if we lose our balance, if we consume beyond our means, if we become ruled by desire for the stuff, comfort is not our reward.  The wages of desire are debt and discomfort, insecurity for our families, and even the unraveling of our communities.  Debt brings not the security and freedom that we seek, but insecurity and fear of the future, the opposite of contentment.  

It is awareness that will set us free, Brothers and Sisters.  We must see the chains before we can break them!  Until we meet again, be well, be strong, and strike a blow!