July magic
July 26, 2009 by Bill
I love summertime. I am not alone. Many other full time desert people have told me the same thing. July is very special to me for I am a moon/water child, Cancer, born on the 17th of July in West Texas. The full moon of July is fast approaching. I feel very close to the natural rhythms of nature at this time of the year.
“Men and books lie. Only nature never lies”, wrote Thomas Paine.
DAWN BREAKING…the first light of a new day. Outside my study window, the cosmic dance, the winged ones of the air…my mourning doves floating in for their gourmet breakfast that I prepared for them before dawn. My quail will be coming in later.
MY “PAISANO”…will show up. My, quote “fellow countryman” as the Mexicans call the roadrunner. This wonderful bird has a four-toed foot…with two pointing forward and two backward…equally divided between the past and the future…always moving and living in…the eternal now.
THE MOUNTAIN is directly to the West of our home. In the first blush of dawn light the East is radiant in response to the rising sun. But as the earth continues turning…the visible Eastern side becomes darker as the Western side is flooded with light. The perfect Tai-Chi disk…the Yin-Yang symbol of opposites that are complementary…constantly changing positions…fluid…flexible…never rigid…never absolute…the light becomes dark and the dark becomes light.
I am living in the cosmic center of this eternal symbol…the dance of Shiva.
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Jefferson and the 4th of July
July 19, 2009 by Bill
When John Kennedy was President, he gave a banquet in the White House that was without precedent. The banquet was for every living American Nobel Prize winner, with about 150 present. At the beginning of the evening, President Kennedy stood and announced he would give a toast. He said:
“Never has so much talent…and so much genius…been assembled in one room…since Thomas Jefferson dined…alone.”
The author of the Declaration of Independence that we celebrate today was a brilliant philosopher… scholar… theologian… architect…linguist… statesman… musician… horticulturist… agronomist… humanist… scientist… deist… and master of the civilized arts.
There is no question in my mind that the 4th of July is the most important holiday that we celebrate in this nation. All of the other holidays, Easter and Christmas included, pale by comparison.
On the 4th of July, 1826, America celebrated the 50th anniversary of her independence. John Adams, the 2nd President, died on that day at the age of 90. His last words were ‘Thomas Jefferson still survives.’ But on that same day….Jefferson too, died.
There was something mystical about the relationship between Adams and Jefferson. It was these two giants who, with James Madison, set the direction and the philosophy of this great nation.
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Fridge notes for the fourth of July
July 12, 2009 by Bill
In the discussion time of my Sunday Symposium we have a small ritual. When anyone says something worth remembering, or I say something equally important, we say “that’s for your refrigerator door.” Everyone has a fridge door library of notes. For this month of July it is a wonderful opportunity to make a dent in the historical ignorance of the political and Christian knee jerk right wingers who are always babbling about our “Christian” founding presidents. They continue to publish phony, fundamentalist, quotes that are laughable to any historically enlightened person with an I.Q. above 3.
These fridge quotes are in defense of historical accuracy , facts, honesty and integrity. The right wing knee-jerks are like the elderly woman, who when first told about evolution replied: “well…I pray to God it is not true…but if it is true, then I pray to God that nobody ever hears about it.”
- THE ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA …Vol 2, p420, 1968 Mortimer J. Adler, editor in chief: “Great issues in American Life” quote: “One of the embarrassing problems for the nineteenth century champions of the Christian faith was the fact that not one of the first six presidents of the United States was a Christian. They were Deists.”
- DEISM: There is no personal God, but only an impersonal force, energy, ‘providence.’ Jesus was nothing more than a nomadic teacher and the bible is nothing but literature and bad literature at that filled with thousands of contradictions and falsehoods.
- GEORGE WASHINGTON approved the Treaty of Tripoli. The “Philadelphia Gazette” on June 17, 1797 printed the entire 12 articles of the Treaty with the notice that the Senate and President JOHN ADAMS had approved the Treaty UNANIMOUSLY. Not even one dissenting vote. Article 11 of that printed treaty begins with this statement: “THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS NOT, IN ANY SENSE, FOUNDED ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.”
