Author Archives: jimwdollar

In conversation with Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers said,”There is this wonderful image in King Arthur where the knights of the Round Table are about to enter the search for the Grail in the Dark Forest, and the narrator says. ‘They thought it would be a disgrace to go forth in a group.’ So each enteredContinue reading “September 10, 2023 – B”

I take heart in not knowing anyone who has done it, or is doing it, right. The old ditty nails it: There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of usContinue reading “September 10, 2023 – A”

We cannot care what our chances are. We have to live as though we are going to live forever with no problems we cannot manage and step into the moment, offering what is called for with the gifts that are ours to share and let that be that, moment after moment. We rejuvenate ourselves withContinue reading “September 09, 2023 – A”

What’s so important about believing in God? Why is that more important than doing what needs to be done? If we are going to believe anything, why not believe in the value of doing what needs us to do it in each situation as it arises no matter what? And do it just like itContinue reading “September 08, 2023 – A”

You have to do you the way you would do you given all you know about you and your current circumstances. What do you have to offer out of your original nature and your innate virtues/characteristics? Your specialties and perspective? What does the situation call for? What does it need from you that you canContinue reading “September 07, 2023 – A”

I was born into seriousness and have swum around it it all my life. It is the whole trouble with everything. People take things so seriously. Paul Watzlawick wrote a book entitled, “The Situation Is Hopeless But Not Serious,” which captures things quite nicely. Comedians are bad about taking things too seriously. Walking around inContinue reading “September 06, 2023 – B”

I come from people who were not true to themselves. Who lived out their lifetimes being who someone else thought they ought to be. I learned from their mistakes, and drew my own lines, but not early enough. There were severe penalties for attempting to draw lines too early. I came to know that lifeContinue reading “September 06, 2023 – A”

Nature does its thing as long as it can, and then when a species or two runs out of living room, and is no longer able to meet the cost of living, nature comes up with other players and goes on with the game– even when that means abandoning entire solar systems. Life plays outContinue reading “September 05, 2023 – A”

What’s important? What’s happening? What’s called for? Answering these three questions correctly in each situation as it arises is all we ever need to do. Why is that so difficult? –0–

We find our own way, taking our cues from the way life requires to be lived, playing the “Is this me or not me?” game from one choice to the next. Forced choices are not choices at all, just places where we don’t get to choose what we do about what’s happening. What to doContinue reading “September 03, 2023 – A”

William Wordsworth nailed it with his, “The world is too much with us late and soon…” and its lament regarding our lost connection with nature and nature’s way of getting things done. “We have lost the magic,” he would say, or better perhaps, “We have traded the magic for thirty pieces of silver, or itsContinue reading “September 02, 2023 -B”

Reading the situation as it arises without our own wants and desires, fear and anxiety getting in the way, and responding appropriately to the occasion, time after time, is all there is to it. That’s all Jesus and the Buddha, etc. ever did. Reduced to its essence, we get: See-Do. Expanded a bit it becomes:Continue reading “September 02, 2023 -A”