May 06, 2022

01

In my studied opinion,
most of the people who are alive
and have ever lived
do/did so on the strength
of diversion, distraction and denial.

Which means they lived in the service
of sex, drugs, alcohol and money
to take their mind off their troubles
and "pass a good time"
while they waited to die.

(Here's one for you:
What does thinking about
sex, drugs, alcohol and money
keep you from thinking about?)

Take sex, drugs, alcohol and money--
including time spent thinking about doing them
as well as actually doing them--
and there is not a lot of life left
in which to do something with.

I call "Foul!"

That is clearly out of bounds!
And a complete waste of life!
We should be utterly ashamed 
and ushered straight back into the line
waiting for a place in the eternal cycle
of birth and death
until we wake up enough (As if!)
to be granted an exit token
good for Nirvana, or it's equivalent,
where there is, supposedly, 
something better to do.

There is something better to do Here/Now!
Nobody's interested.
It's sex, drugs, alcohol and money,
then death and rebirth,
and more sex, drugs, alcohol and money
for as long as the cycle wants to run.

This is crazy, but just try talking
us out of it. 
That's even crazier!

The only alternative we have to offer 
is serving our original nature
and the virtues/gifts/daemon/etc.
that come with us at birth--
being who we are
and doing what is ours to do.

Stack that up against
sex, drugs, alcohol and money,
and see what you have to show for it
at the end of the day, 
any day.

Nothing competes with diversion, distraction,
and denial
in the form of sex, drugs, alcohol and money.

Not No Thing! Not No How!

Sincerity, integrity, balance and harmony,
emptiness, stillness and silence
don't have a chance. 

It's a good thing they don't care
what their chances are.
Otherwise, they would be strictly
out of business.

That's S.O.O.B for those of you
born after 1950.

–0–

02

Christianity invites us 
to dismiss, discount, ignore
so much that is blatantly,
undeniably, absolutely TRUE/FACTUAL/UTTERLY SO--
and to embrace, affirm, believe
so much that is absurd, impossible, completely not-so--
that I am nonplussed, bewildered and confounded
to report that it continues 
to chug right along
as though every thing is just fine and dandy
in the world Christianity declares to be The Real World
(Solid evidence to the contrary notwithstanding).

The difference between the world Christianity lives in
and the world we actually live in
is too contrary to be balanced and harmonized,
except by those like me
who acknowledge the discrepancy
and say, along with R.D. Laing, 
"Okay then, let's play a game of not playing a game!"
While all the time knowing we are just playing a game.

Why would we do that?
Well, because everybody else is doing it,
and it pays the bills (As it is still doing for me),
and it provides me with a platform
for addressing the incongruity
in an honest and straight-forward kind of way,
while working out a compromise position
that manages the dichotomy
and offers a reasonable, valid, and brilliant
display of Taoist, Yin-Yang (Pronounced "Yong")
dexterity deserving of a place among 
the saints in light and the masters of lore.

We take Jesus and make a Taoist Sage of him.

Which is easy to do 
because he is one.

We throw away Original Sin, 
The Garden of Eden,
The Glory of the Cross
and all of the doctrines and dogmas
of classic Christianity,
and replace them with
Original Nature,
the Virtues that are ours from conception,
and the Life we are born to live
in honoring the Tao 
that takes "The Great Flow of Circumstances"
(A Confucian concept)
and merges them with The Way of Life Everlasting,
going, "Wow!
Why haven't we thought of this before now?"

We tried, actually.
And those of us who did so
were burned at the stake.
Or drowned as witches. 
Or ostracized and run out of town...

And it is in their honor,
that I stand before you 
and say, "Enough is enough.
Be done with the masquerade.
Embrace the Truth.
And dance with me."

–0–