March 1, 2025: From The Peanut Gallery—Reminders to Me

The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep. Henry Maudsley

You can fool some of the people some of the time—and that’s enough to make a decent living. W.C. Fields

The following is based on a recent conversation with a friend.

Disclaimer, disclaimer (again): I am not a seer, just a journeyer—sometimes I do well and sometimes not so much. In attempting to clarify my own position, to polish my sojourn, there remains a debris field. It is a reminder for me to watch where I step and what I accept.

I used to think my development would take 1,000 lifetimes (an arbitrary calculation) to achieve a sort of wisdom. Now I think 10,000 which is a reflection that I’m not close enough to realistically pretend I’m an advanced human.

From where I sit, we are all “chosen;” grace and blessings are ours to have. I cannot imagine a supreme being who loves, blesses, or provides grace to only some, though I can imagine creation loving differently, providing grace and blessings as it fits (I cannot imagine the notion of a singularity, which we ascribe to a God, as occupying a space or position). It seems to me there is no withholding, except by some who claim sentience. But my imagination is limited by embodiment as is my freedom and knowledge.

Nonetheless, I am profoundly suspicious of those who claim they are the chosen one (check it out as it may not actually be what some accept as gospel), as well as others making such proclamations about another. It seems to me that those who make such claims serve as an example of what not to do or be. We can pay attention to such folk, but to kneel to them and accept their self-proclaimed standing is literally insane (though we might have to fake a fawning). No one solely has the ear of an omnipotent, omnipresent being.

But, as I had previously written, I often feel like I’m watching myself trying to learn and it looks like a NatGeo feature about a simian (no offense to simians) trying to understand that which is well understood by the observers (at best it’s an “ain’t it cute” thing).  Nonetheless, I intend to keep making the effort.

I think people who learned that God is not in charge of all the minutiae that goes on, substitute themselves or others as the problem—the devil syndrome (those who believe God is in charge and the devil is God’s enemy, have a viewpoint I fail to comprehend—God has an enemy to be concerned with?).

What seems correct to me (I’m not waving any flags!), is God is not a judge and jury, so I apparently defaulted to me as the main culprit  It’s not really a major learning shift if I substitute one faulty dependency for another (I can find fault with others, but any idea that I know best is not something I can accept—though as a parent or an educator, I may occasionally know better).

Perhaps the issue is we need an enemy, which is quite fascinating.  It’s as though we think there’s an asshole and we need to know whom. Of course there is an asshole—many of ‘em. There is also way more beauty, but we’re wired to learn from a negative much more so than a positive.  There is a boatload of negatives, especially if one is looking for them, but negatives do not necessarily mean it’s time to hide (yet another note to me).

Nonetheless, if the notion of “swarm intelligence” is in place, all is not lost if some of us make mistakes. There is research indicating a “community” of people can make correct assessments overall, despite individual disagreements and even individual ignorance of a matter. In other words, managing perspective is a lot of work for little return in the long run. Of course, a lot of us can die in whatever the short run is.  But under the premise of such intelligence, the more people who vote, the more likely we will get it right.  And that’s something that scares the grifters. It’s good to know as grifters scare me.

Be that as it may, at this point, some folk and their “helpers” are seeking the fountainhead, not the wellbeing of “others.” The BS meter is hitting so hard on the red-warning line, it’s like it is trying to create a brighter redline. But so far, we are not listening. Wait, no reminder needed here for me.

Most of us cannot do much alone other than trying not to add to the mess, whether we’re cute at monkeying around trying to understand what’s afoot or just utterly misled.

As for those monkeying around in a resource grab, grifters know they cannot “win” without lies and manipulations to get the levers of power. To the exploiter, innocence is to be taken advantage of and to think otherwise is stupidity, which is worthy of sideling folks. Fear still has inordinate power over beauty, grace, and God by any name. Why would we fear one we are told loves us so much, yet fawn over grifters?

There’s a bit that was part of a W.C. Fields’ shtick: some sticky thing or other gets attached to a body part and efforts to remove it result in a continuous transfer to other parts of the body. Relative to some of us, including me, the sticky part of life is still annoying.  It’s like the utterly stupid question “why me?” when that is only part of the issue: sometimes stuff is just sticky, sometimes it’s easy to take care of, sometimes not so much—sometimes one is the fire hydrant, sometimes the dog.  Sometimes one is both at the same time. I am again reminded.

Re-wiring notions of saviors and a God who loves us but strikes fear in us and has zero trouble rejecting us, is difficult as it requires letting go of what we “know.”  And for many, there is no such thing as re-wiring, so elimination of themselves or others is the goal. We must pay—it’s all just transactional?

I think Dante had it right. The only folk who can move about freely in many realms are “angels.”  It appears non-angels such as me, do need contrast to find true freedom and not simply remain in The Garden where naïve innocence flourished. But to misuse contrast as best vs worst is to make artificial categories that allow some to think they are examples of the best humans and others are worth eliminating.  Not even close to true. And the result is the freedom we so revere, we keep kicking down the road.  There are many who are more than happy to take advantage.

Reminder to me: do not accept the grifter’s BS, but do watch where I step—those supporters are full of venom about how unfair we’ve become.  They are right of course and ironically, they are aiding and abetting what they abhor. Still, the safety net is grace and love.  Remember to accept it kindly and quit freaking out. Okay, that’ll take more than one Post-it note on the fridge. And remember it still means there is work to do. Even angels have to-dos, if that’s a comfort.