The Immortal Heroes

Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language?

Are they dead that yet act?

Are they dead that yet move upon society and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism?

~Henry Ward Beecher

Never forgotten

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.

~From a headstone in Ireland

Missing you, Brian and Mitch...You still live in my heart.

Celebrate Unique You

Our concern must be to live while we're alive...to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.

- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Many years ago, I met a man who challenged everything that I new about myself. I was a carefree, happy, entrepreneurial young woman who always did whatever she pleased. It was easy for me because I was an orphan and didn't really have anyone to look after me.

• When I had the urge to work: I worked. Jobs were easy to find and money came easily to me.
• When I had the urge to play: I played. I always found things to do.
• When I wanted attention I tended to find a new love interest.
• When I wanted a material object that I couldn't afford (usually a guitar or a saxophone), I often found one on sale for next to nothing...

I didn't think too much about it. My life seemed to be a projection of whatever I believed it to be. Every need was met.

Sometimes I think that I had such good luck because I was naive enough to believe that miracles could happen.

Then, I fell in love with an Evangelical Christian who challenged everything that I learned from my upbringing (or lack thereof). He taught me that women were sinners and responsible for humanity's fall from grace. In his view, women were deserving of nothing and existed solely to serve men. He told me that I acted too much like a man and needed to be more subservient. He also called me a nymphomaniac because I was open about my feelings for him and demanded that I completely hide my sexuality.

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I heeded his advice and began to "act like a girl" or more honestly, to act like a mundane and unthinking robot. At that point, my sunny life started to go dark, the opportunities and money started to dry up, and I attracted abusers into my life. I became poor spiritually, financially, and emotionally. I became judgemental. I became lonely. This wasn't me.

The worst part was, his version of Christianity made me lose faith in the Creator.

He said that I was "impure" and accused me of a very horrific sin. The accusation came in a letter. I never did get to address it with him. It was sad because I sensed guilt on his part and, well, one can never free someone with the truth if they keep running away from it. I pray his God has led him to realize the truth about what really happened.

Life is too beautiful to throw away.

That was my lesson from a Wiccan roommate who I met shortly after this disastrous romance. He was more spiritual and religious than any Christian that I had ever met. Everyday was a testament to his religion.

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He taught me that the Creator always provides for those who have faith. All one has to do is ask with a loving heart and, if it is good for you, your wish will surely come true. He reminded me to value myself and to pay attention to my intuition. I found that when I did that, money and opportunities flowed to me.

God was everywhere; in the sky, in the dirt, in the air, and in me. He reminded me to enjoy life and never to throw away any opportunity that the Creator sent my way. If one thumbs their nose at Divinity, he or she stands to lose further gifts until faithfulness is demonstrated. My dear Wiccan friend also believed that this was also true of the Goddess Aphrodite. I was told that should a Goddess send love into your life, don't sent it packing or you'll offend her.

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To be sure, my Wiccan friend was far more spiritual and honorable than any Christian that I had ever met. To this day, I know God sent him into my life to teach me to see the sacredness in everything. If I had judged him as evil because of he was a Wiccan, I would have lost the lesson.

A Wiccan revived my faith in the Creator.

So, there you have my story. It will upset people. I don't care.

I learned many years ago not to judge. The Creator made us who we are for a reason. Don't hide your beautiful soul because some insecure person hides behind a veil of "spiritual" values to tell you how to live.

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What would you do if the God (as the Creator or through the archetype of Aphrodite) sent your soul mate as a member of your sex? Would you send him or her packing and risk offending Divinity?

Some of us think that God would plant a seed within each one of us, to give us a clue as to the identity of the person that was made for us. Would God plant evil seeds?

Evil is Live spelled backwards.

To turn your life upside down and live outside of your true nature is evil. This is what happens when a religion devalues you because of your gender, racial heritage, or sexual identity.

So, I end this post by thanking the California Supreme Court for overturning the gay marriage ban. It is wrong for people from one religion to tell everyone else how to live.

Does one group of people honestly believe that they, alone,

know the mind of God?

I don't know why 10% of the population is homosexual. I believe that God does everything for a reason and that those reasons are probably too complex for any human brain to comprehend. Maybe God wants to keep us from overpopulating his creation. Perhaps he just wants us to learn not to judge each other and leave that to him. Or maybe, just maybe, we are supposed to learn to love each other the way Jesus told us to do in the New Testament.

And, No, I do not believe that Satan lures people into homosexuality. I do not believe in the fire and brimstone hell that the Christians believe in. I do believe that we have an Earthly hell: extremist judgementalism is creating a living hell on Earth because it breeds discrimination against women, people of color, people of different religions, people of different sexual orientations, and a host of other groups.

As individuals, we don't have to buy into it. Really, it's their hell, they can burn in it.

Live today...you're perfect as God made you.

Social Alchemy

The meeting of two personalities is like the meeting of two chemical substances, if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

- Carl Jung

This bassist just looks stupid....

Well, what do you know? It turns out that we bassists are intelligent after all!!

Sure, I didn't feel too smart when I left my old Vintage Peavey T-40 with a violent ex (he returned most of it in really tiny pieces) or gave away the replacement bass (a Peavey Unity Koa) he bought me to some stranger I saw playing bass in a club. I admit that the Unity was the prettiest bass I'd ever seen..but..the circumstances surrounding it's acquisition bugged me to the core. It had to go.

I bought myself a newer T-40 but it isn't the same because my dad gave me the old one when I was a kid. It's true, one can't really replace childhood heirlooms.

When it comes to my basses, I'm not the smartest cookie in the world.

Well, in spite of all that, I can finally pretend to be a smart bassist. Now I have proof that bass players aren't completely daft! Scientists in Sweden claim to have found a strong correlation with the ability to drum out a rhythm and high intelligence (story follows)...Cool!

So, I guess the jig is up...I'll either have to bleach my hair or pick up a new instrument in order to get away with pretending to be too stupid to do mundane chores for my family.... bummer.

Anyhow, here's the link to the story.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416100459.htm

Intelligence And Rhythmic Accuracy Go Hand In Hand

ScienceDaily (2008-04-21) -- People who score high on intelligence tests are also good at keeping time, new Swedish research shows. The team that carried out the study also suspect that accuracy in timing is important to the brain processes responsible for problem solving and reasoning. ... > read full article

Voices

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

-- Apple Computers, from "Think Different" Advertisement