jimwdollar

April 26-A, 2023

Balance and harmony lead the way to The Way. Noise, complexity and drama destabilize and disrupt the flow of life, and wanting what we have no business having keeps the heaving waves of the wine dark sea in constant motion. We have to call a three day time-out just to regroup and reorient our lifeContinue reading “April 26-A, 2023”

April 25-B, 2023

Joseph Campbell made a comfortable living telling people to follow their bliss. Truth be known, so did I. Why would anybody pay anyone to tell them to follow their bliss? What could be more obvious than that? It is like people paying you to tell them to breathe. What? Here’s my theory: People are lookingContinue reading “April 25-B, 2023”

April 25-A, 2023

When we lose the flow, the flow of life, the joy of life, the zest for living, the sense of being one with a mission, with a calling, with a reason for being here/now… When we lose that, how do we get it back? If we have never had it, how do we find it?Continue reading “April 25-A, 2023”

April 24-B, 2023

Transcendentalism appeared in New England in the 1830’s– with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau serving as its most recognizable proponents. It did not last as a movement, because it wasn’t interested in lasting, as in making disciples, telling people why they ought to belong, and competing for market share via oratory and theologyContinue reading “April 24-B, 2023”

April 24-A, 2023

Our Psyche is here to ground us on the adamantine foundation of our original nature and the innate virtues/specialties (The things we are good at/do well). These form our character and represent the boundaries, the limits, within which we live in carrying out the business of life. They are our anchor stone, and serve asContinue reading “April 24-A, 2023”

April 23-B, 2023

If the good we call good were good, and if the right we call right were right, societies around the world would be equitable, racism and sexism, etc. would not exist, and everyone would live in the service of the best interest of one another. Third World countries would not be ransacked and vandalized byContinue reading “April 23-B, 2023”

April 23-A, 2023

The Psyche is sometimes referred to as “our unconscious mind,” (Because we are not conscious of it). One of its functions is to regulate/harmonize/balance our conscious life in conjunction with our unconscious nature and virtues (specialties– the things we do well). Our nighttime dreams are one of the places our Psyche addresses the excesses andContinue reading “April 23-A, 2023”

April 22-B, 2023

In the natural world, a lot of time is spent waiting for the time for acting to come around again. In the artificial world, there is no time for waiting– there is nothing but action, in a “Don’t just stand there! DO something!” kind of way. In the artificial world of normal, apparent, reality, weContinue reading “April 22-B, 2023”

April 22-A, 2023

We all face situations that call for a response from us. Some are serious situations, some are recurring situations, some are trivial, some are life changing… Our place is to know what is called for and to respond as well as we can out of the gifts of our original nature and the innate virtues/specialtiesContinue reading “April 22-A, 2023”

April 21-B, 2023

Orthodox Christian Theology has been around from well before the beginning of this country. “God” is assumed to be, taken for granted as, the background prop holding things together. “The Father Almighty.” “The Maker of Heaven and Earth.” “Garden of Eden,” “Sin,” “Atonement,” “Forgiveness,” “Hell,” “Blah, Blah, Blah…” All of it has been invented/inherited throughContinue reading “April 21-B, 2023”

April 21-A, 2023

“We are on the brink of something great!” What a difference for our country and the world if the Republican Party 60 years ago had made that the foundation of every Platform in every election cycle! And lived to make it happen! But it was not to be. The foundation of every platform in everyContinue reading “April 21-A, 2023”

April 20-B, 2023

Some ways of being in the world are better/worse than other ways of being in the world. Being Jesus is being ourselves with a particular spin on it. Being Jesus is also being the Buddha, and being Lao Tzu, and Chung Tzu, and Lei Tzu, and Wen Tzu… and all those who have known whatContinue reading “April 20-B, 2023”