Conservatise/Liberal/Feminine/Masculine-Equal But Not The Same

After listening to an audiobook called Gift from the Sea: 50th Anniversary Edition by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, I was re-inspired by her empowered femininity to recognize my own mix of masculinity and femininity as well as my own mix of conservatism and liberalism. I experience such a sense of beauty when I ponder the tapestry of humanity and how all these and many more threads are woven together in such infinitely magnificent ways.

Unfortunately, there is a battle still waging between masculinity and feminity & liberalism and conservatism.  I believe it boils down to a combination of two factors.  One factor is the Ego's desire to feel separate and view differences as wrong or at least not as ideal.  This is a shame since embracing the beauty of our differences allows for more beauty as well as allowing our own inner balance to thrive.  I know that while my dominant nature is masculine and liberal, I am quite aware of and comfortable with my feminine and conservative nature as well.  The other factor is when these natures become disempowered which leads to the desire to dominate the other natures.  

Black Lives Matter, Me Too, etc. which are powerful movements to create more equality can easily become disempowered and pendulum swing too far inspiring dramatic pushbacks and creating even less harmony.  That being said, even healthy empowered equality movements will get pushback from those that are disempowered and want to keep things the way they are, so as with most things, it's not black and white but more nuanced. The same is true of Left and Right ideologies.  We appear to have gone further left and right in politics than ever before. Alt Right, Far Left and all the different political groups like Progressives, Tea Partiers, etc. have made things more and more confusing.  The good news is, we have more choices. The bad news is, dramatic swings scare the heck out of folks more in the middle and especially folks that are on the far side of the other field.

Not sure where this is going but I get a strong sense that a starting place for healing is to recognize that Masculine/Feminine and Liberal/Conservative are 4 natural aspects of humanity.  In order for humanity to be fully self-realized, we must embrace them all.  I believe that each of us contains a blend of all of these to varying degrees. Yes we will all gravitate differently.  Still, there is no place for making any of these wrong.  We can call out virus' like Toxic Masculinity and Free Speech Suppression which ultimately make us weaker and more divided but not associate the virus with the whole.

Anyway, I would love to take this discussion further and inspire us to evolve more into the harmonious humanity we are destined to be.  It's going to happen eventually. I'd just like to be a part of it happening sooner than later.

From Catholicism, to Pentecostalism, to New Thought, and Back.

It's been a long spiritual journey and I'm sure it will continue forever.  I was baptized and raised Catholic and went to catechism. When I was 6, I started hanging with my next door neighbors, Perry Vincent and Celia Vincent and I liked them so much, I started going to their Pentecostal Church. I fell in love with church. I just adored the fellowship and the enthusiasm and was baptized again, fully under water and even spoke in tongues quite often.  They are friends of mine to this day.

At fourteen, I began to find the Pentecostal church too strict for me. I decided that I was going to have a personal relationship with God but not be a part of any religion.  While attending John Carroll Catholic High School my junior and senior year, I attended mass as well as played drum set for the charismatic service at St. Anastasia Catholic Church for 2 years.  I was still pursuing my own personal religion and enjoyed being of service to the music program.

Upon graduation, I wanted no more organized religion as it really didn't fit my spirituality. I began reading Wayne Dyer and other spiritual books.  I even designed my own religious symbol which was a star of David, with a cross in the middle surrounded by a circle. I called it "The Oneness of All Religions aka Armandism".  I was dating a dental tech so she made the symbol for me in the dentistry lab. I still have it.

Then in 1984, at 23, a dear friend Pete van der Lugt had gone to a different church and recognized lots of similarities to the philosophies I was studying and speaking of.  I said, "dude, I'm not religious so I'm not going to go to any church."   He said, "dude, you are the most religious person I know."  I said, "Dude, OK, I'll give it a try."  It was the Unity Church of Fort Pierce with Rev. Bob Marshall.  I fell in love with church again. I felt like I had found my home and immersed myself in Unity.  In 1990, I found Religious Science with Rev. Temple Hayes and expanded my spiritual pursuits even more. New Thought has encouraged me to pursue many different paths and practices like Vipassana meditation, Hinduism and Buddhism along with Course in Miracles and many different New Thought teachings, many of which are hybrids of different spiritual paths.  Pete and I are still friends to this day as well.

Then a few years ago, my cousin Hampton Davis, who is a priest in Lafayette LA, invited us to perform at his Gospel Catholic Church, Our Lady Queen of Peace.  We were honored and blessed but were concerned about our song list.  As we looked over the songs, we realized how much Catholicism was in our set list.  Three Ave Marias, Panis Angelicus, The Prayer of St. Francis, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Pie Jesu, Amazing Grace, etc. We did three concerts and it was a wonderful experience for all. We also attended one of his masses and I felt reconnected to the church. We also did concerts at Lutheran, Episcopal and a non-denominational Christian Church as well as a very spiritually progressive Catholic Church called St. Joseph of the Forest in Silver Springs, thanks to Sister Diane Lemon who saw us at CSL Ocala and wanted her folks to experience us.  I could feel myself going back in time and embracing my Catholic roots more and more.  It was as if I had left a part of me and was now going back to get him.

Then I remembered a European trip Angelina and I went on in 2007.  We went to many European countries and visited many cathedrals and sacred sites.  We visited Knights of Templar sites and places associated with Mary Magdalene, the Cathars,  etc..  A weird thing would happen when I went into a Cathedral. I would start to weep deeply.  I was overcome by a mix of joy, sadness and reunion.  I never made much of it once I returned to the states.

Now I have been listening to The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr, (a Franciscan friar based in Albuquerque, New Mexico who was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970.), and everything is coming full circle for me.  I feel like he has woven my favorite and most resonant teachings of Catholicism, Pentecostalism, New Thought,  and Buddhism into a cohesive tapestry of Spiritual Unity.  

Shift Happens!

All In The Family and The Jeffersons...Old Shows Same America

I am watching these remakes for the 3rd time. I am absolutely amazed at how relevant they still are and mostly, how little has changed in 48 years in America.  All In The Family addresses racism, conservatism, liberalism, class war and a president that half of America thinks is a crook, doesn't care about America, acts like a king and is about to get impeached.  Archie even defends Nixon by saying "he's not interested in making money during his presidency because he's got plenty of money already".  I mean it's like a carbon copy of today.

What a brilliant way to present social, economic and political issues in a comedic way. Every character is lovable in their own way.  In other words..."there are very fine people on both sides."  We have ultraliberal Mike and Gloria and ultraconservative Archie Bunker sharing their points of view in an uncensored way.  It sounds exactly like conversations I see happening in private right now. So much name calling. Honkey, Ni$%^(ridiculous that I had to hide that word), Polack, Hebe, Colored Person, Meathead, Racist, Pinko, Commi, etc.  Just like now where we have so much name calling from the top down. Even now,  aggressive conservatives call liberals, especially candidates favoring some socialist causes, such as universal health care, as 'commis' with the intention to paint them negatively. Aggressive liberals label conservatives as racists, etc. with the same intention.  Both George Jefferson and Archie Bunker say bigoted things to each other and about each other's perspective races. Archie even says the blacks have as much opportunity, maybe even more than the whites which is something I continue to hear today.  Even the theme song, "Those Were The Days" is a mirror of "Make America Great Again!"  The beautiful thing about these old shows is that the family made it very obvious that they loved the person, even and especially when they did not love the rhetoric.  These days, friendships are ending, families are breaking up and more, just because we have not learned how to disagree better. Each side still thinks the other side is wrong and they are determined to get them to see the light.

We have progressed in so many ways yet in some ways, our growth was stunted in the 60s and we have never grown past it.  I think one of the major reasons we are so stuck is because of "rogue political correctness".  Political correctness is dessert to most liberals but poison to most conservatives, yet society has been forcing it down everyone's throats.  How wonderful that the original episodes did not censor the way we do now. As a compromise, the producers kept all the original dialogues but bleeped the most offensive things out since America has become so hyper-sensitive these days.

It's time to grow up America. We are not going to grow up if we are constantly protecting ourselves from facing our inherent differences.  We need to get it all out on the table and my observation is that the last 3 years have brought so much darkness to the surface, that we might finally be able to do the work that it takes to heal our wounds. The band-aid is being ripped off and the healing air of transparency is finally getting to dis-ease.

Here's the deal...we are all different.  We have different brains and lenses.  Men and Women.  Conservatives and Liberals. And all the other diverse people. We will have to learn to empathize with those that think, look and act differently.  We will never think like them but their reality is just as relevant to them as ours is to us.  Goodness will rise up in the long run and the quicker we get it all out in the open, the quicker we can move through it.

Trump is a Wild Card

Most likely the most divisive subject in the U.S. is Donald J. Trump. It is more important than ever to keep objective, open-minded, compassionate and emotionally sensitive if we want to be a part of the solution and not add to the disharmony. This morning, partially inspired by a conversation with a dear friend that sees things almost completely opposite than I do relative to President Trump, my awareness seemed to crack open a bit.  Here are some objective truths I perceive relative to our current Civil War/Cancer.

1. Trump is a Wild Card.
2. There are beautiful, loving, patriotic, kind, decent, open-hearted people that support his Presidency
3. There are beautiful, loving, patriotic, kind, decent, open-hearted people that do not support his Presidency.
4. There are hateful, unpatriotic, purposely divisive, closed-minded, selfish people that support his Presidency.
5. There are hateful, unpatriotic, purposely divisive, closed-minded, selfish people that do not support his Presidency.
6. None of us really know all the facts.
7. There is major corruption within our government and that includes those on the Left and the Right.
8. The Golden Rule is still Golden.
9. We have much more in common than not.
10. We must put humanity before patriotism, and patriotism before political ideology.

So, go ahead and do what is yours to do. Be an activist, share your concerns and vote your conscious. AND do so with an open heart and mind. Be sensitive to how you present your case. Remember, there are people on the other side of the field that are just as committed to justice as you are. Love is the answer to all problems and don't allow your passion to overtake your ability to Love. When in doubt, study MLK Jr or Gandhi.  Peace and Love was at the core of their activism. 

OK, done ranting for now.

My Dance as Director and Actor

My greatest paradox is how to balance my job as Director of Armand, and Armand the Actor. Today I was feeling some "toursick blues".  This is what gypsies sometimes get when they long to be back on the road. As the Actor, it is more fun if I play the part in the moment, in a very childlike manner, imagining that life is unfolding before my eyes.  Still, if I believe I am in control, another voice can come in and say "you better not screw it up". That is when it's really important to slip back into Director mode and remind the Actor, "dude, just play the part. Have as much fun as possible. Be confident and express yourself fully.  I am directing you and it's all happening exactly the way it's supposed to happen.  Your main job is to trust, love, feel your feelings and be as kind to yourself and others as possible given each scene. YOU are my only actor and I love and adore you. This is our movie and it's already Scripted."
Whew!  That's a relief!

America Has Cancer

This morning I had a waking dream. Imagine that we are part of a national family.  This family is called The United States.  Imagine that about 33% of this family is not involved at all in politics, but just focuses upon their lives, making a living, taking care of their personal families and friends. They may have opinions about it and may vote, but they are not attached either way. They also don’t despise Obama or Trump.   Imagine that another 33% of this family really loves Obama and believes that he was the greatest president of their lifetime and really made America Greater, and they despise Trump and his supporters. Imagine that the other 33% of this family really loves Trump and believes that he is the greatest president of their lifetimes and is really making America Greater ,and they despise Obama and his supporters.  That would mean that 66% of your family is at complete odds with each other.  This is a real challenge if we want this family to thrive and function as a healthy unit. That is like having 66% of our body plagued with CANCER.

Unfortunately, I woke up and was not given any answers.  So, I will try and come up with some and hopefully, you will join me in adding some as well.

1.     Don’t call those that despise Obama racists or those that despise Trump deranged.

2.     Stop using mean-spirited words like redneck, deplorable, libtard, snowflake, racist, Nazi, communist, anti-American, and idiot (used by the entire 66%).

3.     Call out those that are using mean-spirited words etc.

4.     Open your mind and heart to empathize with why the opposite 33% feels and thinks the way they do without insulting them with comments like “they only think that way because they want everything for free” or “they only think that way because they are bullies”.  (I admit this is easier for me since I am not part of the 66%.

Remember that a large part of the American problem is a result of the two-party system, which assumes that we are either liberal or conservative without creating a political space for nuance and full spectrum ideology. As a result, it has become a political football game where the only concern for 66% of Americans is how we can get the ball into the other side’s end zone.  Remember, Obama and Trump both represent leaders that are effective at, and committed to, dramatically moving the ball.

Thet Bright Side of Perfectionism

 

So many of us have this deep longing to be perfect. This typically leads to disappointment and self judgment. We see others appearing to be more perfect and successful and/or happier than we are. I would say that the biggest challenge that Angelina and I face, is the stress and anxiety associated with trying to be and do things perfectly. This morning, I realized that on some level, perfection is not just a goal, it is our true nature. Our true Self is already perfect and that realization is calling upon us to be recognized. Our human self will always be imperfect and well....human. That’s life and the human experience. It’s only when we get absorbed into our humans that we get confused. It’s like going into a theatre in perfect health, watching a movie about someone who’s sick and feeling like we need medical help. That is just the character in the movie. This whole earth experience is just a movie and our true Self is the one watching and guiding our human, actor self.  

 

 We are already perfect. We can’t get life wrong. It’s just a learning experience. From this place of knowing our perfection, we can guide our human in the most effective and fully adoring and accepting way possible. Sure we want the movie to turn out the way we would like. Still, by not allowing the flickering images to suck us in, we can stay unattached to outcomes and disidentified from the characters, which keeps us from judging humanity and life, most of which we have very little control of anyway. We can especially stop judging ourselves. Remember, we are much more affected by how we perceive what happens in the movie than we are about what actually happens.

 

Today I recognize my perfection in a more powerful way. Today I recognize your perfection too. Today I more deeply identify with the Guru while lovingly observing, guiding and adoring the Goofball.