Donald Lee's Blog, page 5

The First Commitment for 2021

Commandment or commitment? The difference is free will. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

You’ve heard of the Ten Commandments. You may, or may not, have heard of Neale Donald Walsch and his Ten Commitments. It’s his interesting take on the Ten Commandments. Today, I’ll look at the first one.

Neale Donald Walsch is a pretty ordinary guy, at least he was until he started complaining loudly to God—and God answered him. That’s what Neale says. You’re free to think what you want. He claims to have experienced “automatic writing”, as many other mystics have throughout the ages. Basically, his pen moves on the page in his hand but not under his volition. It’s movements and the words it writes come not from him, but from some unseen entity. In this case, that entity apparently claims to be God. I can’t vouch for the veracity of this one way or the other. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. God has never answered my complaints that way.

In any case, Neale Donald Walsch has produced some interesting books (the “Conversations with God” series) with some unconventional ideas about God and the nature of reality. He says there is no such thing as the Ten Commandments. The Word of God is a covenant, not a commandment. You are free to enter into this spiritual commitment—or not. Do you want to take this spiritual journey? Do you want a closer relationship with God? The choice is yours. But if you do, here are some things you’ll notice.

From Conversations with God:

You shall know that you have taken the path of God, and you shall know that you have found God. …for there will be these signs, these indications, these changes in you. These are your freedoms, not your restrictions.

1. You shall love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. And there shall be no other God set before Me. No longer will you worship human love, or success, or power, nor any symbol thereof. You will set aside these things as a child sets aside toys. Not because they are unworthy, but because you have outgrown them.

There is only a slight change in tone between this and the first commandment you are used to. Here, love is your choice, you are free to accept it or reject it, because God gives you free will. You are not commanded to love God. But as you progress on your spiritual path, you will choose the love of God and love for God.

To love God is fundamental, so everything begins here. Really, it is everything. We know God is omnipresent, existing everywhere. In fact, everything we perceive is in God, for it is in God that “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Without loving God, we really cannot love anything.

From another perspective, St. John tells us that God is love. In love, we are drawn into oneness with God, who is love. As well, all love comes from God. The love we feel or express is God, whom we allow to express through us. When love flows through us, God flows through us—we allow ourselves to be expressions of God in the world. To the extent we love, we experience oneness with God.

Outside of God, who is love, there is no real love, but only poor substitutes that we humans mistake for love: lust, need, dependency, comfort, etc. Therefore, the most fundamental choice we have to make is whether or not to love God. We can make no progress along the spiritual path until we choose to love God.

Love is the way—the only way. You may recall that the first disciples of Jesus were called followers of “The Way”. The “way” that Jesus taught was the way of love. It’s ironic that humans have made the simple path of Jesus so complicated, so restricted by rules, so dogged by dogma. He made it abundantly clear that the key is love, the goal is love, the way is love.

As you set for yourself new resolutions, new goals, new commitments for this new year, why not try this first commitment? Begin by loving God.

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

The Universe Is Unfolding As It Should

After this year, it might seem not just ironic but ridiculous. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

Those of you near my age may remember this poetic piece of prose. Like millions of youths in the 1970s, I had this poster on my bedroom wall. I listened to the recording on my favorite radio station. It resonated with my soul back then, and it still does.

This one post (on December 29, 2020) is doing double duty—for Christmas and New Year’s. (Both fall on my usual blog posting day.) It’s a “close enough to sacred” reflection on this weird Christmas and also a help to placidly face whatever 2021 may bring.

One might be able to see all kinds of irony in this: that something from so far in the past might be helpful in dealing with the future, or that I could think putting Christmas and New Year’s together makes any sense at all. After this year, I feel so rudderless I’m not sure what irony is anymore.

But I can think of no better way to end this crazy year of 2020 in peace, and start the next year of 2021 in hope, than with this wisdom. I give it to you with my blessing.

Desiderata (Things Desired)

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,

And remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

And listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant;

They too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter;

For always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

Many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

For in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars:

You have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,

And whatever your labors and aspirations,

In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

It is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

Max Erhmann

1927

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

Trust Me on the Sunscreen

Succinct aphorisms ironically hold more truth than complex theology. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

“Trust me on the sunscreen.” So ends a famous article by Mary Schmich which was published in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997. It was her humorous attempt to write a graduation speech, dispensing pithy wisdom for 18-year-olds to ignore. It was turned into a hit song known as “Desiderata for the 90s”. It’s also become a little slogan I use often—but nobody really understands it. People just give me funny looks. But I’m used to that.

But it’s a great idea to condense voluminous theology into catchy aphorisms. I sometimes imagine Jesus saying something like this just before his crucifixion. As he’s going out the door, metaphorically, he turns to the apostles and says,

“Hey, guys, trust me on the sunscreen. This is the key: Love each other as I have loved you. See ya’ round.” (heavily corrupted version of John 13:34)

In all the arguments, divisions, violence, murder, and torture of the past two thousand years of Christianity, this little summary by Jesus remains the core of his teaching—Love. It’s ironic that something so simple and uncontroversial could cause so much controversy. Whatever else you understand, or don’t understand, about Jesus’ teaching, practice this. Whatever you despise in other denominations and other religions, remember it’s all about Love. St. John said, “God is Love”. And God is all there is. So Love is all there is. Everything else is illusion. Even the Beatles got it right, “All You Need is Love”.

We are approaching that time of the year when we celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world, the coming of the Prince of Peace, the rebirth of Love in our own hearts. This year, many of us are separated from those we love most. More than any year in my memory, fear has displaced love. Right now, we need love more than ever.

The good news is, we can do it! We have Love because Love, like God, dwells within us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. It is truly the Love of God that is within us. We just need to let it flow!

In this last week before Christmas, try setting aside everything that bothers you, annoys you, drives you up the wall—other people, governments, silly rules, whatever is separating you from Love. Try taking a few minutes every hour to be still and reflect on the love of God in your heart. Let that love flow through you, out into your neighborhood, your town, your country, and encircle the whole world.

This is what Christmas is all about—Love.

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

Judgment is not Blind, But Insane

I find myself judging everyone. It’s an epidemic. It’s insane. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

I am currently reading Tara Westover’s bestselling memoir, Educated. She describes growing up with a father fearful of both God and Man. At one point, he misread the Book of Isaiah and decided that milk was evil. A judgment of Man, not of God. An insane judgment. It turns out—all judgment is insane.

We humans think our own judgments are right, good, just, correct, lofty, praiseworthy—add whatever value-laden words you like. Sometimes, years later, we might realize that our earlier judgments were mistaken. Sometimes not. But I am constantly amazed at the ability of us humans to pass judgment on each other so quickly and easily, and to impute such high and noble motives and wisdom to ourselves. We imagine that our pure motives and our perfect understanding raise us above the judgment of others, and above the need for such pedestrian qualities as patience, civility, and respect.

Today a watched a short cellphone video of lawless rioters in Portland attacking police and driving them out of the neighborhood, all because the police had the gall to enforce the laws of the state, in this case, an eviction notice from a house used for illegal activities. Are these 200 or more people mindless idiots hell-bent on destroying Western Civilization? I don’t think so. I think they imagine themselves to be high-minded and morally justified by their intention to bring about a better society filled with peace and love and justice. Therefore, their lawless, violent actions and obvious hatred are above reproach. Does this make sense?

No. It’s insane. You cannot bring peace with violence. You cannot bring love with hatred. You cannot bring justice with lawlessness. That should be obvious. But it’s not. It should be obvious that you cannot bring tolerance with judgment. But it’s not. Herein lies the insanity of judgment.

Everywhere I look in our society today, I see more judgment, less tolerance; more hatred, less love; more constraint, less freedom. I have not seen this level of social strain since the 1960s.

The Master Teacher said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” We usually see this as a cause and effect relationship, as a case of “what goes around, comes around”. But if we can grasp our essential oneness, then we can understand it more directly. “As you do it to your brother, you do it to me”, becomes, “As you do it to your brother, you do it to yourself,” because you ARE your brother. You are ONE. When you strike your brother, you strike yourself. When you judge your brother, you judge yourself. When you judge others, you cannot escape judgment because you have just done it to yourself.

I know an elderly Dutch lady who was a child in the Netherlands during WWII. She said, “Life now feels like life under the Nazi occupation.” I’ve heard people who have lived in Eastern Europe under communism say the same thing. We judge our neighbors. We don’t talk to them. It’s forbidden. We don’t trust them. You never know whose “side” they’re on. Civil society is breaking down. Communities and even families are breaking down. We are suspicious of everyone. It’s becoming ever more difficult to see “our neighbor as ourself”.

The only way we can bring love and peace into the world is to love everyone—to be peaceful all time. We must love and accept our brother whether he wears a mask or doesn’t wear a mask; whether he votes Democrat or Republican; whether he is sane or insane; whether he is peaceful or violent; whether he is loving or hating; whether he is socialist or libertarian.

It’s getting harder to avoid judgment. The task of love, tolerance, and forgiveness is becoming more difficult in our fractured world. We’ll just have to try harder. I will. Will you?

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

I’m From the Government, And I’m Here to Help You

No longer just humor, but irony. Read what I mean in this week’s edition of

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you.

Do you know the joke? What are the three greatest lies?

1. The cheque’s in the mail.

2. Of course I’ll respect you in the morning.

3. I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.

Don’t worry, there really is a spiritual meaning in all of this. It’s coming.

In a spiritual sense, we are definitely here to help each other. The tougher question is, “What exactly constitutes help?” Maybe you’ve heard the old Chinese saying,

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

It’s a crucial distinction. Both are “help”. But the latter is much more helpful than the former. Its help is permanent. It leads to independence, self-sufficiency, maybe even to self-transcendence because the man can, in turn, teach others how to fish.

I have my own take on this aphorism.

Give a man a fish, and you make him your slave.

Teach a man how to fish, and you set him free.

When you simply give him the fish, he becomes dependent upon you. He will be back at your door tomorrow, asking for another fish. He will do what you want because he needs the fish. Ironically, “help” can become tyranny. We have to think clearly about all the effects of our “help”, intended and unintended.

In spirit, we are all meant to grow up, to become independent, to realize that each of us is on our own unique spiritual journey. We must travel it independently, even when in the company of others. Others cannot carry us. Metaphorically, each of us must learn to fish for ourselves. Only then are we free. Only then can we truly make our own journey.

I don’t know what’s happening in your country, but here in Canada, our government has used the cover of a virus crisis to make everyone slaves. It’s more than ironic. It's become tyranny. The government said, “Stay home. Don’t work. We’ll give you money. Everything will be fine.” As an economist, I can assure you, there is no such reality. Money represents production. If you just print money out of thin air, the money takes on the value of air. When you make millions of people dependent upon government, you make them slaves of government. The government controls them. Whether this is intended or unintended, the result is the same. You have given men fish—and taken away their fishing rods.

Seek your own independence, physically and spiritually. Realize that no one else can carry you back home to God. You must walk your own path. Even though all paths eventually lead you home, you must choose your route. Help everyone around you to find their own independence. Neither can you carry them. Set them free. Freedom—spiritually, politically, economically, in every way imaginable—is one of the fundamental truths of life.

When you realize that government is us, that governments have nothing of their own but only what they have taken from us first, the metaphor becomes even more meaningful. In truth, there is nothing outside yourself. Everything is already within you. The peace you seek, the love you seek, everything you seek, is within you. Because God is within you. The Holy Spirit dwells within you. Seek what you desire where it may be found, not where it is not. As St. Augustine said,

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.”

Choose your own path. Walk it yourself. And we shall meet in God.

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

We Have Nothing to Fear—But Fear Itself

FDR’s famous line is just as valuable in this 2020 Terror. See how ironic it is in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.

This is one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s most famous quotes. Spoken during the depths of the Great Depression, when millions of people had lost all hope, FDR said,

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is … fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Inauguration Address, 1933

Almost a century later, we are, again, dealing with an unjustified terror, an unreasoning fear that has paralyzed millions of people and kept them cowering in corners, incapacitated by a nameless fear.

It’s incredibly ironic because we think we fear things that are outside of us. But fear is always within us. As such, fear cannot be banished with a bomb or a gun or a law or a lockdown. Fear is within you. You can’t hide from it. But you can dispel it. Like darkness, fear is really nothing in itself. We have nothing to fear—because fear really is nothing. Darkness is simply the absence of light. Fear is simply the absence of Love.

As St. John said,

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

1 John 4:18

We might be tempted to think the opposite of fear is confidence, or strength, or power. Again ironically, these things are closer to fear. The illusion of power is born from the fear of powerlessness.

And when I say love, I don’t mean lust. It’s not eros, as the Greeks would say, but agape. It is that universal, unconditional love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance, that goes beyond emotion and seeks the best for others. In fact, this Love ,is God. Again, St. John tells us that, ,God is Love. (1 John 4:16)

There’s something else we should remember about fear. When someone is trying to make you afraid, they are trying to manipulate you. All of us do this—parents, teachers, bosses, policemen, terrorists, governments, religions—everyone uses fear to manipulate others. Sometimes it’s fairly innocent and socially beneficial, sometimes not. But love is always a better option.

The fear of something outside of us, causes us to attack something we perceive as outside us. Maybe we attack another person, an idea, an attitude, an institution, a country, an organization, a belief, a race, a religion, a virus. But we can never destroy something that is within ourselves (our fear) by attacking something that is outside of us. We will only succeed in attacking ourselves. This idea is related to one I presented in an earlier blog post, that we become what we fight against. (Oct. 2 post)

So regardless of what you fear, attacking anything will not solve it. Only love can do that. Of course, we have real, physical problems, including health problems. But our problems all have solutions—both individual problems and collective problems. The rational, logical, problem-solving part of our brain can help us to solve our problems. But that’s not the part of our brain where fear resides. And the problems themselves are separate from the fear. Our biggest problem is never the problem itself, but the fear we hold.

The solution to fear, is love. The more we allow fear into our consciousness, the more it pushes out love. Pray and meditate on the consciousness of love, and it will push out fear—just like St. John says.

If, and when, you can expel all fear from your own consciousness by filling your consciousness completely with love, then you will have no fear. Because there really is nothing to fear. Except fear itself.

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

With What Do You Identify? That’s Your Problem.

Whatever you “identify” with, is holding you back from the peace and love you seek. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

Who Are You?

“Identifying with, or as” has become such a common phrase of late. “I identify as male.” “I identify as female.” “I identify as BIPOC.” And a thousand other identities we can identify with. This is a fundamental problem in our lives, as individuals and as societies. Why is that?

It goes back to the fundamental existential question of life, “Who am I?” We “identify” with that mental image we have of ourselves—our self-concept. Or, as we understand it in spiritual terms, our ego, or egoic mind, or false self.

If you identify with any aspect of your body or your mind, it will lead to division and discord. We see this so much in our world today. Let me start with a couple of examples.

Bosnia

In 1990, my wife and I visited Yugoslavia and spent a delightful day in lovely Sarajevo, site of the 1984 Winter Olympics. We stood in the famous footsteps of Princip, from where he shot the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand to start the First World War. Shortly after our visit, Yugoslavia descended into a bitter civil war. Beautiful Sarajevo was reduced to ruin in a three-year siege and endless street fighting.

At the time, I read a newspaper article that described life inside Sarajevo. A foreign reporter was interviewing a Serbian militiaman at a street barricade. “Why are you fighting?” she asked. “Those are your countrymen. You are all Bosnian.” The man held his AK-47 firmly in one hand, cigarette in the other.

“You see this?” he said. “This is a Serb cigarette. Those men over there, they smoke Moslem cigarettes. We have nothing in common.”

It was comically tragic, or perhaps tragically comic. He identified so strongly with a “thing”, a cigarette, and with a “thought”, the idea that there was some impassable cultural divide between his cigarette and his neighbor’s, between him and his neighbor, that he was willing to murder his fellow man over it. The difference was imperceptible, yet enough to induce him to murder. Over 100,000 people died in this tragic mis-identification.

Cemetery in Sarajevo for people who died during the Bosnian Civil War

Rwanda

Some friends of mine have been involved in resolving family violence and reconciling offenders and victims for many years. They spent some time in Rwanda after the genocide, helping to heal people and communities. Most of us in the rest of the world could not tell the difference between a Hutu and a Tutsi. Both are black-skinned. Their cultures seem identical. They speak the same language. Yet for nearly four months in 1994, Hutus rose up with machetes and rifles to murder almost a million of their Tutsi neighbors and rape a half million of them. Why? They believed the differences in their bodies and thoughts, imperceptible to the rest of us, were so great as to justify mass murder. They became incapable of seeing their neighbors as their brothers. Another tragic mis-identification.

National Memorial to the victims of genocide in Kigali, Rwanda

You might be tempted to call these rare examples. Not really. Extreme, perhaps. But this is the natural end to divisions unless we stop it. If you can hate, you can murder. If you can murder one, you can murder many. There’s no natural end to it. Think of the many mass murders of the past century. All have been caused by “identifying” with the body or the mind, or something to do with the body or the mind.

Hilter murdered all the communists in Germany before he murdered all the Jews. The former murders were justified because of their thoughts, the latter a combination of physical attributes and thoughts. Between 1975 and 1978, Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, murdered almost 2 million of his own people, a quarter of the population, for their “thoughts” alone.

Catholics and protestants killed each other for many centuries of European history. Hindus and Moslems continue to sporadically kill each other in India, even after separating themselves into different countries in the great partition of 1947, in which over a million people were murdered. Chinese communists murdered almost 20 million of their brothers for not be “communist enough” during the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s. I could go on for many pages.

The root problem is “identifying” with some aspect of your body or your mind. Neither of which are truly “you”. Any such identification is mis-identification.

Who Am I?

You are not your body. Our bodies change. Cells constantly die and are replaced. There’s not a single cell left in your body that was there seven years ago. If you are your body, which body? The body you have now? The body you had as a teenager? The body you will have twenty years from now? All these are completely different bodies. Which one is “you”? None of them. “You” have a body, that constantly changes. But “you” are not your body.

Neither are you your mind. Your mind changes more frequently than your body. I hope your mind doesn’t change as frequently as a teenaged girl having her period, but it changes often enough that I’m sure you can agree it’s not constant. No, you are not your mind either.

You Are Spirit

You are that which finds itself in your body and observes your mind. I recall my grandmother telling me, when she was in her 80s, “You know, I look old. But inside I feel the same as I did as a girl.” That’s the “you”. We call it soul, or spirit. That’s who “you” are. You are an eternal being of light and love. Not your body. Not your mind.

If we want to find peace within ourselves and peace in the world, all of us must stop identifying with our bodies, or anything to do with our bodies, and our minds, or anything to do with our minds.

Only when you realize your true identity, that you are soul/spirit will you come to feel your oneness with all humanity. You will realize the brotherhood of man, because you will realize that you are your brother. Jesus said, “As you do it to the least of these, my brothers, you do it to me,” (Mt 25:40). How can this be? Because your spirit is your brother’s spirit, is Jesus’s spirit, is God’s spirit. In truth, there only is one spirit. We are all one. As you do to the least of your brothers, you do it to yourself.

In the coming days, try holding your “mis-identity” lightly. Yes, you have a body and a mind. You have a job, a role, a profession, a culture, a language, an ideology, a religion. But none of these is you. You are Divine. You are an eternal spirit of light and love. You are one with God. And so is everyone else.

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

Where Are Your Sacred Cows?

Everyone has them—beliefs too “sacred” to question. It’s ironic, but they might be blocking our growth. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

Dear Seeker of Truth,

You might think you have a small house, but it’s full of sacred cows. Let me explain.

When I studied economics, I learned to think like an economist. They have their own way of looking at the world—their own system of thought. When I studied mathematics, I learned to think like a mathematician. They have their own system of thought. When I studied music, I learned to think like a musician. When I studied business, I learned to think like a businessman. When I studied Catholicism, I learned to think like a Catholic.

Each system of thought, each world view, each way of perceiving the world, has its own characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and distortions. All of us use our marvelous minds—our God-given ability to think and reason—to develop a system of ideas that are fascinating, mostly consistent, and help us to understand some aspect of reality and the world around us. This is our world view.

Yet the mind is not nearly as helpful as we think it is. And we are not nearly as clear-thinking as we think we are. Everyone thinks they’re logical but almost no one has studied logic. It’s a little ironic. Even the brightest among us has slips of logic, errors of thinking, and occasionally gets blind-sided by the Truth. Even the most brilliant system of thought is shot through with fallacies.

For example, when I studied economics, I read “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” by John Maynard Keynes. It’s the most famous economics book of the 20th century by its most famous economist. All of modern economic theory and practice is based on it. Every respectable economist has a copy on his bookshelf. But, ironically, not many have actually read it.

When I read it, I was disgusted to find the work littered with logical fallacies, especially the straw man fallacy. How could the brightest economists in the world all think this is a good book? How could all of modern economic theory be based on such shaky ground?

I’ve found that every system of thought, every way of looking at the world, is incomplete, narrow, logically inconsistent, limiting—in some sense, not Truth. In this context, I recently heard another spiritual teacher say something that resonated with me.

“If you seek Truth, you must have no sacred cows to protect.”

Jacqueline Maria Longstaff

This touches on the fact that we see the world and reality only through the lens of our own world view, to which we desperately cling. Do you cling to the belief the Donald Trump is the head of an evil conspiracy? Or that Joe Biden is the head of an evil conspiracy? Do you cling to the belief the Satan is the Prince of Darkness and rules over the Kingdom of Hell, (to which certain people you know are certainly going)? Do you believe that you were born with original sin? Do you believe in everything that your particular denomination, religion, cult, guru, or spiritual guide teaches? What if the Truth were that none of this is true? What if the Truth destroyed some of your cherished beliefs—some of your “sacred cows”?

Our understanding of how the human mind works, says that you will dismiss the Truth as lies and fantasy if it doesn’t conform with your existing lies and fantasies—your current world view. That is part of the human condition.

This idea was laid out decades ago by Thomas Kuhn in his classic book, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. Scientific evidence that doesn’t fit the current paradigm, or system of thought, is ignored and denied until the weight of evidence becomes so overwhelming that it forces a re-examination of the current theory, or world view. Then almost everything is turned upside down—like our understanding of the universe was turned upside down by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Nothing in physics was the same after that. It turns out that all of us do this. It’s simply how the human mind works.

We won’t look at our own beliefs until our pain gets too great to bear, either physical and emotional pain, or just cognitive dissonance. That means we tend to stay stuck at a certain level of spiritual growth until our pain forces us to re-examine our beliefs and change those beliefs that just aren’t working.

Our beliefs about the world determine how we see the world and how we act in the world and, therefore, how the world reacts to us. Our actions will bring us pain and suffering until we align our actions with an accurate understanding of Truth, with a capital “T”. So, we tend to move from one spiritual plateau to another, with a lot of kicking, screaming, pain, and struggle in between.

If you honestly seek Truth, begin by holding your existing beliefs lightly. If everything you currently believe constituted the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth, there would be nothing left for you to seek. You would already be enlightened, awakened, in Nirvana, in the Kingdom of Heaven. If you don’t already have the complete sense of being there, then something is amiss in your world view, your beliefs.

Bear in mind that your beliefs are not your beliefs anyway. You didn’t come up with them. You learned them from somebody else. Some other fallible human like you. Recognize that some of your most fundamental beliefs might be wrong. You cannot make progress on the spiritual path without being willing to examine your beliefs carefully, objectively, ruthlessly.

If you are willing to consider them, here are a few “beliefs” you might consider adopting, but you don’t have to. I can’t guarantee they are ultimate “Truth”, but I think they’re worth considering.

· The universe is unfolding as it should, so whatever is happening should be happening.

· You are the Light of the World.

· You are an eternal being of light and love.

· God is with you.

· God is constantly communicating with you, guiding you.

· What you think, say, and do, creates your experience of life.

· There is nothing to fear.

· Things are never as they seem.

· God is Love. Everything is God—so, as the Beatles sang—Love is all there is.

If you deeply ponder any of these ideas and their implications, and hold your current beliefs lightly, you just might be surprised by your next spiritual plateau.

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

Who Won? Who Lost? Everyone.

Something’s lost and something’s gained. I look at Both Sides Now in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.

“There’s something lost and something gained in living every day.”

So sang Joni Mitchell in the 1960s song “Both Sides Now”, still one of my favorites. Certainly, the US election has brought to light many ways in which we have gained and lost—not just the candidates and not just Americans—but all of Western Civilization.

Who won? Who lost? All of us have lost—much more than we’ve won. In the electoral battle for president, all have been wounded. The nation is wounded. Western Civilization is wounded. On this great battlefield of the presidential election, as in any war, there are no real winners, only losers. All of us need healing.

Thinking back to the days when I listened to Joni Mitchell sing Both Sides Now, we’ve gained lots of money, but not real prosperity. My parents bought their first house for $12,000. I bought my first house for $82,000. My current house cost over half a million dollars. I was flabbergasted that anyone would lend me that much money. Yet it’s not much different as a house. Maybe a bit bigger, with more wasted space. We have more money, yet we have a greater desperation for money. The more of it we get, the less it’s worth. I don’t feel “better off” than I did in the 1960s. I’m not sure anyone really does. I was happier and less stressed in the 60s—and it’s not just because I was a kid. There’s an epidemic of stress in kids today. Not back then. Is that progress? Have we won or lost? How do we heal?

Back then we had riots over the senseless killing of millions of people in Vietnam. Now we have riots over the supposed sins and insults of historical figures who lived centuries ago. Have we won or lost? How do we heal?

The election campaign revealed that we have not a war of words, but a war of world views; not a war of ideas, but a war of ideologies. We have much talking, but little listening. Have we won or lost? How do we heal?

We have gained powerful new means of communication, but we only listen to what we already believe. Our once-respected news outlets have become propaganda outlets. There is no more “news”, there is only “conservative news”, and “democratic news”, and “environmental news”, and “socialist news” and “climate news”. As if the climate was news to anyone. As if ideology was news to anyone. As if today’s lies are news to anyone who lived through yesterday’s lies. Nowhere is there truth, but only a thousand differently myopic and narrow-minded views of the world. No news. Only views. Have we won or lost? How do we heal?

We are part of “communities” that span the globe with people we’ve never met and may not even be who they claim to be. Yet we’ve never met the soul who lives in the next house or the next apartment to us. We “connect” on social media, but we won’t come within six feet of our friends.

Back then we talked about race relations. White people and black people should get to know each other, work together, learn together, live together. No more segregation. Now we talk about race reparations. White people should give money to black people to make up for the injustices of past generations. What twists of logic are required to think that taking money from people who were never slave owners and giving it to people who were never slaves will somehow heal the wounds of slavery? Money cannot heal.

Only one thing heals: forgiveness.

Some say Donald Trump is a liar. It seems his opponents are as well. Is this news? Was good ole’ Tricky Dicky Nixon not a liar? There seem to be more lies today—I’ll agree with that—lies everywhere. What’s an ordinary person to believe? Personally, I don’t believe much of what passes for “news” regardless of where it comes from. After all, the truth that is “out there” is never as important as the Truth Within.

In the censorship, the lies, the deceit of today, we have a desperate need for honesty—especially with ourselves. In the same statement we decry racism and celebrate the obvious racism that, “Black Lives Matter”. An organization that poses for racism, yet its true purpose is something different. Our world is littered with such organizations. Environmentalists who know nothing about the environment. Scientists who seem ignorant of, or blind to, basic scientific principles. Medical professionals, dedicated to helping people, yet seemingly blind to the growing despair, malaise, depression, suicides, drug overdoses, bankruptcies, family violence—caused by their relentless pursuit of a microscopic virus they cannot even reliably identify.

Every politician claims to work for the “good of the people”, yet all have ordered people not to work, not to play, not to greet their family members, not to do all the stuff that makes life “good”—and all out of fear. Don’t worry, you don’t have to produce anything. We’ll just print paper money and you can have everything. Even a child can see through that lie. Have we won or lost? How do we heal?

Only one thing heals: forgiveness.

Healing comes only from forgiveness. That’s a hard pill to swallow. In our pharmaceutical age, we think that healing is as simple as taking a pill. It comes from outside us, just like the bacteria or virus came from outside us. A government policy will heal us. Just build a wall and keep all the illegal aliens out. That will heal us. Or maybe just let all the illegal aliens in and that will heal us. But no healing can come as long as we see our brothers as aliens. Healing never exists outside us; it exists in our hearts, or it doesn't exist at all.

Can you forgive your socialist neighbor and let him be a socialist? Can you forgive your rich neighbor and let him be rich? Can you forgive your unemployed neighbor and let him be unemployed? Can you forgive your environmentalist neighbor and let him be an environmentalist? Can you forgive your Trump-supporting neighbor and let him support Trump? Can you forgive your Biden-supporting neighbor and let him support Biden? Can you forgive the oil companies, the abortion companies, the green companies, the black companies, the dirty companies, the gambling companies, the media companies, the tech companies for being what they are? Can you forgive the Chinese, the Mexicans, the British, the Argentines, and maybe even us Canadians for being what we are? Only in forgiveness is there freedom. Without forgiveness you constantly find something to condemn and constrain in everyone; the righteous excuse to tell others how to live their lives. Yet none of us really knows how to live. If we did, we truly would be “better off” than we were 60 years ago. The tolerance we most need is the willingness to tolerate each others’ delusions.

Most of all, can you forgive yourself? If you cannot forgive your own weaknesses, you will not be able to forgive the weaknesses of others. You must forgive Christopher Columbus for whatever you imagine his sins to be, just as you must forgive yourself for tearing down his statue. You must forgive the unknown white policeman you threw rocks at, just as you must forgive yourself for throwing the rocks. He is not evil. Neither are you. You are both eternal children of light and love. Only when you can see that, will you heal. Only then will there be peace in your heart. And only then can there be peace in the world. Only then will there be healing. Through forgiveness.

An election does not change a nation; a nation changes an election. It’s time to be a nation again.

As the song says,

I’ve looked at life from both sides now,

From up and down and still somehow,

It’s life’s illusions I recall.

I really don’t know life at all.

Most of what you believe is illusion. And recalling that great collection of irreverence and wisdom colloquially known as, Desiderata for the 90s, “Trust me on the sunscreen,” trust me…

Healing only comes through forgiveness.

As Abraham Lincoln famously said so long ago, on another battlefield,

…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

We are still seeking that rebirth of freedom, that healing, which can only come through…

Forgiveness.

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.

Fake it Till You Make It? True AND False.

Yes and no; some truth and some deceit. Find out when you can, and can’t, “fake it” in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.

Fake it till you make it! I first encountered this saying as a young musician learning to improvise. I’m still fakin’ it! (I love Simon and Garfunkel’s song by that name.) I never did get very good at the complex skill of improvisation. It’s kind of ironic that such an apparently ridiculous phrase would hold any truth at all.

What does this aphorism really mean? Various people have attributed lots of different meanings to this simple phrase. Psychologist’s use it. They have their own understanding of how and why it works. You can check out this article in Psychology Today, for example. In short, the way we act is connected to our thoughts and emotions—and the line of causality runs both ways. We can affect our emotions by the way we act. From the article,

Acting "as if" is a common prescription in psychotherapy. It's based on the idea that if you behave like the person you want to become, you'll become like this in reality:

If you want to feel happier, do what happy people do—smile.
If you want to get more work done, act as if you are a productive person.
If you want to have more friends, behave like a friendly person.
If you want to improve your relationship, practice being a good partner.

Faking it until you make it only works when you correctly identify something within yourself that's holding you back. Behaving like the person you want to become is about changing the way you feel and the way you think. (Bold is mine.)

The “within yourself” is critical. It’s all about you, not about anything outside yourself. If you spend money like you’re rich, you’ll only end up further in debt. If you act a certain way to impress someone else, you’re only acting like a fool. Proper “faking it” is about connecting with a part of your inner self that you are presently covering up, and you want to bring out. That leads us to the spiritual view of “Fake it till you make it”.

As you know, we are composite creatures: spirit, mind, body. Each affects the others. That’s why the way we act in our body, affects our mind and our spirit. The way we think in our mind also affects our spirit and the actions of our body.

For our spiritual growth, we want to connect with our divine self, our spirit, our goodness, etc. (You fill in the aspect of the divine that you most want to develop.) If we act more compassionately, then we will connect with that divine compassion that is already within us, but we are hiding. If we act with more forgiveness, then we will connect with divine forgiveness. If we act more lovingly, then we will connect with the divine love. All these divine attributes are natural attributes of our spirit, which is created in the image and likeness of God.

In a spiritual sense, “fake it till you make it” means to act holy and you will become holy. Because, in truth, you already are holy, you’ve just been hiding it. You’ve been letting attributes of your ego shine too much—your anger, your selfishness, your judgements of others, your pride. Don’t take it personally. All of us do that. That’s what the human condition is all about. “Fake” your holiness and you will gradually connect with that holiness that lives, perhaps hidden, within you.

The master teacher said, “You are the light of the world”. All of us hide that light too much. Uncover the light within you. Just let it shine!

God Bless You!

· If you enjoy reading my take on life’s ironies, but sure to subscribe to this blog.

· Click here to get a short excerpt from my new book, “The Band Director’s Lessons About Life”. It’s a collection of short modern-day parables to help you along your spiritual journey in life.

· If you haven’t read my new book, check it out at my publisher, Booklocker.com or at

· Amazon.

· You can watch my short book trailer here.

· The only place to get my new “Pocket Guide to Spiritual Growth” is right here.