Donald Lee's Blog, page 6

So Many Love Songs…But Is That Love?

Millions of words have been sung about love. It’s ironic, but love is not in words. Read what I mean in this week’s edition of

Untold millions of words have been spoken about love—in songs, in poems, in stories, in moments of hot passion. So, love must truly be in all these words. , it is in silence; love is not in speaking, it is in listening. Here is what I mean.

There are several different parts to our minds. We can think of the conscious mind and subconscious mind. Freud considered the mind to contain three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. Modern psychology considers numerous parts of the mind, those that involve cognitive functions such as consciousness, imagination, rational thinking, memory, as well as noncognitive functions such as emotion and instinct. But from a spiritual perspective, we can consider two important, and very different, parts of our mind: our false self (the ego or egoic mind) and our true self—our divine self. Let me explain these a bit.

The false self, or egoic self, is our idea of who we are, our sense of self or self-concept (not who we really are), which is created by thoughts about ourselves: "I am fat, tall, a father, a hard worker, a musician, not good enough." These thoughts create a sense of being somebody separate and distinct from others.

Our true self, or divine self, or essence is who we really are, the soul or spirit that is living this life through us. It is our essential goodness. We are actually spiritual beings having a human experience. That spiritual being is our true self.

Our true self is not only capable of loving, but it is love. It is our true self that is created in the image and likeness of God—and God is Love, so our true self is love. The false self, on the other hand, isn’t really an entity at all. We could call it mental programming. The ego is only our idea of ourself. It is not a real self at all. It is a mental construct. It is not capable of loving.

If you’re confused by all that, don’t worry. You’re in good company. Almost no one understands it. But here’s the thing, most of the time when we talk in a conversation, which part of our mind do you think is doing the talking? Usually, it’s the ego. (Note that I’m talking about the ego as the false self, not as Freud conceived of it.)

When the ego is speaking, you feel a push to talk because the ego wants to talk about itself, wants attention, or wants to demonstrate that it knows something. Thoughts about what you want to say swirl around in your head, or you impatiently wait for an opportunity to speak. When you do speak, you experience a tightness in your body and a self-consciousness or pre-occupation with yourself. All of which signal that your ego is talking. When you finish speaking, there no sense of “Ah”, but a feeling of needing more, needing more approval for what you just said, needing more attention, needing to be special. It doesn’t feel good to need. There is no peace in needing. It turns out that attempts at getting something for yourself out of a conversation only backfire, leaving you wanting more of something you can never get enough of.

Contrast that with your true self. To do that, we must drop out of the ego and into the heart. Not into feelings/emotions—they belong to the false self. I’m talking about your spiritual heart, which is your connection to your innate wisdom, your true knowing, your intuition. When you are in your heart, then it is truly possible to say something that is meaningful and true and loving in that moment.

When the heart has something to say, it lets you know through a different urge to speak. It’s a sense that something wants to be said through you. You’re not sure what it is. When the heart is ready to speak, the words come forward and you are as surprised as anyone because you didn’t know what you were going to say. The words just came out of your mouth. Words that come from the heart make everyone relaxed and that’s when you know you’ve spoken the truth.

Relaxation is a sign of being aligned with the Divine self, with truth. Whether that is a relative truth, or eternal Truth. You know when you’ve heard the truth because your body relaxes and feels at ease. You feel either an “ah” or an “ah-ha”. Your body is a wonderful instrument for guiding your conversations. Contraction is a very different state from expansion/peace/relaxation—and easy to distinguish.

So, how can you tell whether it’s your egoic self or your true self that wants to speak? Firstly, and most importantly, notice what the ego is trying to get for itself by saying what it’s saying. Is it trying to be: right, superior, special, to get attention, to be “the helper”, or the “savior” to others, to enhance its position in the world, or get something else it wants from others.

Secondly, when you’re with others, make a conscious effort to not speak, or to speak very little. When you feel the push from your ego to speak, hold back. The more you hold back your egoic impulses, the easier this becomes. This takes practice but you will eventually gain mastery over your ego. The divine self is receptive, it listens, and that is really what others want from you. When you listen, love flows from you to others and back again to you. The divine self is always kind. When you do speak, let your words be kind. Give this gift to yourself and others. Kindness comes from the truth—the deepest truth of all, that you are love and you are here to love.

Even with a million love songs and love poems, it’s ironic that love is not in the words. Love is in the listening. In short, the ego speaks, love listens. Try listening more—really listening. You might be surprised by how much love you experience.

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.

Can Our Pets Teach Us Love?

It’s ironic that a loving pet can teach us about loving people and life. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

We always had a dog when I was growing up. From the earliest I can remember until my parents moved into a senior’s home, they had dogs. I loved them all. And I think they loved me. That’s how it seemed anyway. Do dogs feel love the way we feel love? How do we really feel love, anyway?

I was reminded of dogs last week when I spent some time at my son’s house. I don’t have a dog anymore and I miss it. Well, I miss parts of it. I miss that non-judgmental, eager attention of a dog. Every time I stepped out the front door, Ruth, the chocolate Labrador retriever, would be there in an instant. Her tail wagging a welcome, eyes looking attentively up into mine, almost a smile on her face. “Where are we going?” she seemed to ask, enthusiastically. She never complained about the cold night she spent outside, or the food somebody forgot to give her, or the fact that everyone ignored her during the Thanksgiving dinner. Ruth was always focused only on the present moment. The joy, comfort, fun, and love in this present moment. Dogs do that.

Can any of us do that? Can we live solely in the present moment? Most of you already know that’s the key to living spiritually. All the gurus and spiritual teachers have told you that. Whole books have been written about it. (Read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle if you think I’m exaggerating.) It’s so simple, just six words. “Live in the here and now.” Yet soooo hard to do. How is it that dogs can do it? Isn’t that ironic?

Let’s try doing what dogs do. Can it really be that hard? Here’s how it works. Just like a dog, focus your attention completely on something or someone. Giving attention is giving love. That’s why we think our dogs love us—they give us their complete attention. They look into our eyes so deeply and completely that we feel love flowing from them to us—and back again.

Try that with the next person who speaks to you. Focus your attention on them completely. Look deeply into their eyes. I bet that’s too much love for you to handle. But there it is—simple. Don’t let your mind wander to what you had for breakfast, did you remember to brush your teeth, what time is it, this is taking too long, I’ll be late for work, he’s repeating himself, is he really that daft, I would have done things differently… That’s not focusing your attention on the other person. That’s focusing your attention on the thought stream in your mind. And that’s why you don’t experience all the love, joy, peace, and beauty that’s all around you. That’s being a human, not a dog. Try harder to be a dog.

You see, what really gives attention is your divine self. That thought steam in your mind is your false self, your egoic mind. The more you can set that thought stream aside and focus your attention completely on someone or something, the more you will experience your divine self, your real self. The more you will experience love, joy, peace, and beauty. Your divine self pours love on whatever it gives attention to. It is your complete and undivided (undivided by your thoughts) attention to someone or something that causes love to flow from you into the world. You feel this love. When you allow love to flow through you, it warms you up, like electricity moving through the wires of a heater. You feel love because you are allowing love to flow through you.

So simple, yet so difficult. The spirit is like that.

Give your attention—completely—and you’ll be overwhelmed by the power of love, peace, joy, and beauty coursing through you and into the world. The world will be better for it—but most importantly—so 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.

What You Give—You Have

It seems backward, certainly ironic, but you can only have what you give. See what I mean in this week’s edition of

My granddaughter was reluctant to sit on my lap.

“Grampa, I’m sick. I don’t want you to catch what I have,” she said.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m not that old and feeble. I’m not going to let a few germs stop me from hugging my grandchildren,” I said.

So, she dutifully climbed onto my lap. She was getting almost too big for it—a little awkward. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her boney frame.

“Ah, that’s my little girl. But not quite so little anymore!”

She giggled.

“Have you made some new friends at your new school,” I asked?

“A few,” she replied.

“If you want to have friends, be a friend—to everyone,” I said.

“If you want to receive love, give love—to everyone. It’s a funny paradox of life, but we don’t really feel the love we receive. Oh, it’s nice when people treat you kindly. But the love we really feel, is the love we give away. Love is like energy, as and the energy of love flows through us, it warms us up. It’s kind of like the electricity flowing through that heater over there. The heater warms up when the energy runs through it. Love is like the energy of God. When we let love flow through us, we feel it’s warmth. And we can never run out of it! There’s an infinite amount of love that just keeps coming forever. We give and give and give love and never run out.”

It’s a good reminder for all of us. We only really have what we give to others. If you want to have peace—give peace. If you want to have love—give love. If you want to have justice—give justice, to everyone.

On this Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada), we can apply the same principle to thankfulness. Although it seems ironic—even paradoxical—if you want to have things to be thankful for, you must start by giving thanks. Even if you aren’t feeling very thankful right now, start by giving thanks. Count your blessings, as we used to say. You will soon realize how much you really do have to be thankful for. You will start to feel thankful.

It’s ironic, but give first, then you will have. Happy Thanksgiving!

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.

What You Fight Against—Grows

The irony of fighting evil, is that what we fight against, grows. See why in this week’s edition of

The futility of fighting. It's ironic, but be careful what you fight against.

In my part of the world, most people pride themselves on a beautiful lawn of green grass around their homes. The eternal “War Against Dandelions” has its annual summer campaign. The pretty yellow dandelion flowers are perceived to be a stain on an even, dark green lawn. Yet the best defense against weeds is a strong crop of grass. Nourish the grass—and the weeds get choked out. It might seem ironic, but ignoring the weeds and focusing on the grass is actually a good anti-dandelion tactic.

This is also an important spiritual principle. Nourish the grass in your own life. Water and fertilize every good and pure thought, word, and action in yourself and others. These will grow. Ignore the bad within yourself and others, as much as possible.

St. Paul presents this idea in his letter to the people of Philippi.

“,Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Phil. 4:8)

Think about the good. Talk about the good. Praise the good. Focus on what you want—not on what you don’t want.

We understand this when raising our children. Children naturally want our attention. Attention is a form of love and they crave love, just as all of us do. But children are an open book; as adults, we cover our need for love and attention with indifference and cynicism. Children will act in ways to get our attention—attention-seeking behavior, we call it.

If we reward all “good” acts (as we perceive them) with attention, those good acts will grow. If children cannot get enough of our attention with constructive and socially acceptable behavior, they will get our attention with annoying, whining, cloying, and even destructive, nasty, power-seeking actions. They quickly learn what gets the attention they crave. As parents, if we focus on what we do want, then what we don’t want tends to wither away.

Rather than rail against the dark—light a candle.

We often use the metaphor of darkness representing evil. Darkness is not really “something” in itself. It is simply the absence of light. Bring light, and the darkness disappears. “It is far better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,” as William Watkinson famously said over a century ago.

There is no need to “fight” against darkness, just as there is no need to “fight” against evil. Bring goodness. Whatever you think is “evil” within yourself, within your family, within your community, within the world—fighting against it will only cause it to grow.

There is also so much good within you, your family, your community, and yes, even within this world. Focus on the good. Focus on, “whatever things are true…” Your life will be better. The whole world will be better.

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.

Vegan or Carnivore? Is Spirituality in Our Food?

Fall brings hunting season in Alberta. Is killing geese holding up my spiritual growth? Get my thoughts in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.

With nobody working and the cities going crazy, I took the opportunity to escape to the countryside and hunt some ducks and geese with my son. But I had pangs of guilt. Was this holding up my spiritual growth? “Do no harm”, as the Buddhists say. “Hurt no sentient being.” Could I be spiritually enlightened with blood on my hands and meat in my belly?

On the long drive, I listened to the Bhagavad Gita on audiobook. I read it in my teens, but that was many decades ago. I was struck by Krishna’s response to Arjuna in Chapter 2. Arjuna is facing the impending fratricidal battle between the Pandavas and the Dhrtarastras. He is naturally repugnant at the thought of killing his kinfolk and friends. He asks Krishna for advice. Should he lay down his weapons and allow himself to be killed rather than take the lives of his friends?

Arjuna is a soldier, a member of the Kshatriya, ancient India’s warrior caste. Krishna tells him to fight. It is his duty, his job, his role. Krishna says not to be distressed at killing these men. “Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.” Form is illusion. Spirit is real—and eternal. You are not killing, but merely changing the form.

If it is not wrong to kill men in battle, how can it be wrong to kill a fish or a chicken to sustain your own life?

And what of all past human existence? We have been hunter/gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years. And pastoralists for at least tens of thousands. Many people on earth still are. The Inuit of the arctic traditionally lived almost exclusively on animals and fish. Very few edible plants grow in the arctic. Have all hunters and pastoralists throughout time been relegated to the lower echelons of spiritual development? Is the food that feeds our bodies the same that feeds our souls?

What about the Biblical Patriarchs? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What about Moses? They were mainly pastoralists, living off their flocks of sheep and goats. Were none of them close to God? Did Mary and Joseph not eat meat? What about Jesus? We know he ate fish. He must have eaten lamb at least once a year, at Passover, and likely more often. Was he not enlightened?

~

As I set out on my first duck hunt in decades, I wondered if my conscience would repel me from killing. I didn’t hate the ducks. I loved them. I wished them no harm, really. It was food. It was the natural order. It was duty. It was destiny. Like Arjuna.

Ever since I was young, I have loved the outdoors—being in Nature. I feel at home there, at peace, more than anywhere else. I relish my days of hiking, canoeing, even skiing and fishing and walks in the river valley. I need that energy of nature regularly. I think all of us do. There is something primal and irresistible about it. We need that connection to Life itself. We feel the force of Life, the kundalini, the chi, that flows through all of Nature and all of us. It is our connection to Life.

Hunting has somehow always flowed in my veins. For some, it is a sport. For me, it’s always been something more primal. Perhaps it’s the Jungian archetype of the hunter in me. Perhaps it’s thousands of years of hunter/gatherer ancestry in my unconscious mind or in my DNA. Perhaps it’s hundreds of past lifetimes as a hunter. I don’t know. I only know that it feels right to me. It feels like my proper place in Nature, in the circle of life, as Simba would say.

As I waited for the birds to come, I breathed deeply and joyfully the rotting, half-putrid smell of the marsh. I felt the cool fall breeze rustle through my white beard. I heard the distant calls of mallards and teal and Canada geese and ravens. Some would be food, some not. Some would see another nightfall, some not. Such would my own fate someday. The circle of life.

Some birds flew within range. I felt no twangs of guilt, only the primal excitement of the hunt. I felt neither malice nor distress. It was the business of providing food. Some ducks and geese I hit, many I missed. My aim is not great, and most were safe while I was shooting. Even dispatching the wounded did not distress me. Life was not lost. Life is eternal. The form only changes. Their form becomes my form. My form will also pass away in time. Life itself remains. That Life of which all life is a manifestation.

A successful hunt. A primal experience of Life changing forms.

Everything that lives, dies. Form is constantly changing. Even our own bodies are constantly changing. Not a single cell remains in our bodies that was there ten years ago. They have all been replaced. Form changes, spirit is unchanged. Everything is food for something else. This is the circle of life. It is neither wrong nor right. It just is.

We are a part of Nature. We are omnivores—by nature. The hunter archetype is one of the strongest. Hunting as a family felt right—even perfect—bringing game home for my children and grandchildren, cleaning the birds, cooking and eating them. The geese tasted great. It is harvest season and all of it seemed natural—geese from the pond, potatoes and greens from the garden, wine from the vineyard. Is it wrong? Is it retarding my spiritual growth?

I don’t think so. I hope not. I will continue to pray and meditate and hunt, at least until I change my mind.

May your harvest season be equally blessed!

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.

What? Me Worry About Debt?

Our finance minister isn’t concerned about her unpayable debts, yet her priority is things that she can do nothing about. See the spiritual analogy in this week’s edition of

If you were to make a list of the most important roles of the federal government, what would be on that list? I’m sure you would get it mostly correct. External defense, internal justice, managing the federal purse, etc. But what has our new finance minister just said is the government’s number one priority?

“The single most important economic policy of our government and the best thing we can do for our economy is to keep coronavirus under control.”

Chrystia Freeland, September 16, 2020

As quoted in the National Post

Yes, I more aware than I care to be that the entire news cycle and public discourse for the past six months has been totally monopolized by this virus. It is a flu virus that has been around for over a year (yes, check the real data if you don’t believe me), has infected about 1% of Canadians, has minor symptoms or no symptoms in about 80% of people, has killed about the usual number of old and immuno-comprised people as a typical flu, can be managed by doctors, and yet has been hyped into an incredible panic by a massive international fear and misinformation campaign.

I could have titled this post “Things Are Not What They Seem”, but I have already used that title. You have to be both blind and a fool to think that dealing with a nearly-normal flu is in any way a national economic policy. You have to suffer from these same handicaps to think that there is anything the federal government can possibly do to “control” a virus that has already spread all over the country and the world. Individuals can take steps to protect themselves and to strengthen their own immune systems, but there is nothing any government can do to control the virus. It does not pay taxes, nor does it follow any federal laws, and it certainly doesn’t care about political correctness.

But our finance minister goes on in self-congratulatory foolishness…

“Let me assure Canadians that we understand the value of wise and prudent fiscal management and that is a policy our government will continue.”

This government will post a $350 billion deficit this year, up from $25 billion last year. Total debt will hit about a trillion dollars. That’s $500,000 for every taxpayer. It’s more than a second mortgage and most Canadians are having trouble paying the first mortgage. This debt will never be paid back. It’s not possible. Not with money, anyway.

This is from the same government that thinks it can control fake news! They are the greatest purveyor of fake news! It can’t get more ironic than that. They wouldn’t recognize “wise and prudent fiscal management” if it sat up in their breakfast cereal and said, “Good morning” to them.

Our government is so big (about 50% of GDP this year and twice as big as is economically optimal) that it is a drag on the economy. It’s wisest and most prudent economic policy would be to quit doing about half the things it is already doing—not adding to them by trying to corral an invisible virus and "control" it as if it were an errant calf at branding time. Two economists from the Fraser Institute recently published an article about this.

“However, going beyond optimal levels (26% to 30% of the economy) usually entails government becoming active in areas where its efforts are counterproductive to growth. For instance, governments increasingly focus on redistributing income from certain groups to others, rather than incentivizing economic growth, and many begin favouring certain industries and sectors of the economy through corporate welfare and protectionism, all of which slow economic growth.”

Alex Whalen and Steve Globerman,

OPINION: Government is just getting bigger in Canada

Postmedia Network, Sep 15, 2020

In short, our government is so far from “,wise and prudent fiscal management” that it has no idea what those words even mean, and it has no meaningful economic policy at all.

So, what’s the spiritual analogy?

In the same way that the government is worrying about things that aren’t important and it has no control over anyway, we simple humans worry almost exclusively about our material welfare, which isn’t really very important. Also, in the same way that our government has forgotten to take care of what’s really important, we give little thought to our spiritual welfare.

Our minds are focused on what is non-essential, what we often cannot even do much about. While that which is most important, over which we have the most control, and what is our primary purpose, we neglect.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God…” That is to say, we are here for spiritual growth. Concern yourself with that, and the material necessities of life will fall into place. That’s getting our priorities right.

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.

You Could Do This—Things Are Not What They Seem

Does this look scary? Daredevil? See how things are not what they seem in this week’s edition of

Scary? Not really. You could do this.

Facebook has become a great place to post photos that make your life seem, shall we say, other than it is. In Facebook photos, everyone is happy, has lots of friends, is always in beautiful places with beautiful people. Looking at this photo, you’d think it was incredibly risky and you could never do that. You’d be mistaken. Almost anyone can do this. Thousands do. Life’s like that. Things are not as they seem.

This blog is all about the ironies of life. Life’s biggest irony is that everything here is an illusion. Everything we think is real, is unreal. What we think is unreal, is real. How ironic can you get?

What we see is, as Plato described it in his famous cave analogy, like the shadows on the wall of the cave, cast and distorted by a point source of light shining on figures we cannot see and creating giant images that we think are real. What we perceive as reality is only a shadow of what is truly real.

So it is with our spirits. Things are not what they seem. We seem to be physical beings. We’re really spiritual beings. People seem to die. Really, we just leave our mortal shells and return to “who we really are” and where we really came from.

On a spiritual level—a spirit is the only thing that truly is real—life is about love. God is love. And God is all there really is. So, love is all there is. Everything else is illusion. Live life constantly aware that it is in Love that we live and move and have our being. That’s how things really are.

What’s the secret of the daredevil photo? That “cliff” isn’t far off the ground. In fact, it’s about two meters off the ground. It’s a popular tourist spot in Pedra do Telegrafo, Brazil.

Here is a “behind the scene” photo.

Things are not what they seem.

Almost every day, there is a long line of people waiting just to take photos on that spot.

So, don’t be fooled by photos on Facebook, or by serious-sounding talking heads on the news, or by all these physical things around us that seem so firm and real. Love is real. Love is all there is. Ironically, that’s the great secret of life!

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.

Boneless Chicken Wings? Can They Fly?

Have you seen the viral video about boneless chicken wings? See the irony, and the spiritual analogy, in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.

Do these look like wings? How did they get the bones out?

Our language has become incredibly corrupted. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that true and honest communication is so difficult in our society today. Sometimes it seems like everyone is speaking different languages and no one is listening. Most people only hear what they already believe, whether it makes sense or not. People repeat nonsense words and phrases, mistakenly thinking they sound astute and erudite.

Ander Christiansen from Lincoln, Nebraska is fed up with one phrase. He asked his city council to have restaurants rename “boneless chicken wings” to something true and descriptive, rather than the lie that it is. How novel—truth. Watch the video .

It turns out that “boneless chicken wings” are, in fact, chicken tenders—otherwise known as chicken fingers. (Hint: Chickens don’t have fingers either.) Here is the Wikipedia entry for chicken fingers.

“Chicken fingers, also known as chicken tenders, chicken goujons, chicken strips, tendies or chicken fillets, are ,,chicken meat prepared from the ,,pectoralis minor muscles of the animal. These strips of white meat are located on either side of the breastbone, under the breast meat (pectoralis major). They may also be made with similarly shaped pieces cut from chicken meat, usually the breast, or sometimes just pulverized chicken flesh.”

Huh, not wings at all. Breasts. You’d think people would be aware of breasts. Most of us have noticed that they’re already “boneless”.

It reminds me of an old Far Side cartoon that showed a picture of a barnyard with lots of skinned and floppy birds lying on the ground. The caption read, “A Boneless, Skinless Chicken Ranch”.

Say what you mean, and mean what you say. I have come to believe that most people have no idea what they are saying, partly because the words don’t mean what the words mean. If you mean “strips of chicken breast”, then don’t say “boneless chicken wings”. They’re not wings at all.

It’s so ironic that humans developed language in order to communicate and now we have corrupted language so we can’t communicate. Here are a few other examples. It took me years to figure out that “sustainable development” doesn’t mean that at all. Many people use this term for ideas that cannot possibly be sustained—like printing money to pay for things you don’t need. Even a child knows that’s not sustainable. I was stumped by the political term “progressive” for many years. I finally figured out it really means “regressive”. No wonder I was confused. How ironic. We have lost our understanding of what language is supposed to be.

The spiritual analogy is that we have lost our understanding of our oneness with God. We came from God. Each one of us is a child of God. God created us. God should be as close to us as our breathing. But we have lost our connection. We have lost our way. It’s really ironic. How can we not be in touch with what is most truly us? Only when we find our way back to God, to that oneness with God that we once enjoyed, will we find the Peace and Love that is our birthright.

Keep seeking. You’ll find it.

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.

You Cannot Spread Love and Tolerance With Hatred and Violence

Have you noticed the violence, class hatred, and vandalism lately? All in the name of tolerance, respect, and love. Does this seem ironic to you?

There are many things we cannot do in this world. Yet sometimes we think we can—we think it will work. In 1916, an American pastor named Reverend Boetcker famously penned a little pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots. Over the years, it has been misattributed to Abraham Lincoln and it does sound very “Lincolnesque”. I have often turned to it for inspiration.

The Ten Cannots

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.

You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.

And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

You might rightly conclude from this list that, in today’s society, we are doing everything wrong. I cannot address everything in one blog post. Today, I will consider, You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

It seems that so many of our leaders today resort to pitting one group of people against another. This is scapegoating, among other things. It’s always nice to have someone else to blame for our problems. It’s those greedy one-percenters who are destroying our society. It’s those lazy people on social security who are bankrupting our country. I’d be rich and happy if it weren’t for institutional racism. I’m being persecuted because I’m a woman (or a man), I’m black (or I’m white), I’m gay (or I’m straight).

But everybody has problems. Just because someone else’s problems seem different from yours, doesn’t mean they don’t struggle with something. Comparing your handicaps to someone else’s is a fool’s errand. Nothing good can come of it. It’s up to each one of us to do the best we cab with whatever we have. This is an eternal truth of life—a spiritual truth. Our problems do not lie outside of us. They lie inside us. Blaming someone else demonstrates a low level of spiritual understanding. It’s also completely useless.

The fact that each one of us is a unique child of God is just the other side of the coin that says that everyone else is different from us. Stressing those differences, or antagonizing those differences, just tears all of us apart. As the old Desiderata that was popular back in the 70s says, “If you compare yourself to others, you will become vain and bitter, for always there will be lesser and greater persons than yourself.” We need to focus on our similarities. All of us are human. All of us struggle. All of us are children and heirs of the same God, whether we realize it or not. How do we do that? Not by inciting hatred.

To respond to a black man being shot, with violence against white people, is not only ironic. It is counterproductive. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “To answer brutality with brutality is to admit one’s moral and intellectual bankruptcy and it can only start a vicious cycle.”

The only effective response to violence is love. Violence needs healing—not more violence. Instead of inciting class hatred—foster the brotherhood of man. Blaming others will not help you. Acting violently will not bring peace. Intensifying the divisions between people will not bring unity. Only love will heal. Because, You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. Only love will help.

Let’s try loving each other more.

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.

Canada Retaliates! I’m Sure That Makes Sense. LOL

If the USA does something stupid, Canada has to follow suit. See how ridiculous this is, and get the spiritual metaphor, in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.

Not to be outdone by Donald Trump, the great political poker stars in Ottawa, "I'll see your tariff and raise you."

Part 2 of “The Aluminum Wars”. Last week I pointed out how the American tariff on Canadian aluminum will mainly transfer wealth from the American middle class to the American rich. As Forrest Gump famously said, “Stupid is as stupid does.” But wait! Hold the presses! Canada won’t be left out of the “stupid” category. “The Mouse That Roared” has declared an aluminum war with the United States of America. Yeah... I’m sure that will work out well. Maybe I’m just simple-minded, but it sure seems ironic to me.

Now the Government of Canada will extract an extra $3.6 billion from ordinary Canadian consumers—supposedly to punish the Americans. I’m having trouble understanding the logic here. If we ordinary, middle-class Canadians give our government another $3.6 billion, how will that hurt Donald Trump. How will it make us better off? And I’m sure our political leaders and their cronies will spend that money just as wisely as they spend the rest of the $350,000,000,000 they take from us. Forgive me if I don’t feel better just yet.

As well as showing the tariff game at its worst (typically the rich benefit and the common people pay), the whole sordid spectacle demonstrates an important principle of life, which is also a spiritual principle. In the spirit, and in this physical world, we become what we fight against. You cannot overcome the problems or the injustice of a tariff with another tariff. You just produce more problems and injustice. Revolutions usually produce a government worse than the one they replace. Fighting totalitarianism will lead you to act like a totalitarian. The war on terror uses the tactics of terror. (Of course, terror is a tactic so you can never defeat it. It’s a perfect excuse for the forever war.)

Back in my hippie days we used to say, “Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity”. You can only spread peace by acting peacefully. You can only overcome injustice by acting justly. Even in medicine, you cannot really become healthy by “fighting” a disease. You have to do things that promote health. Nothing is gained by trying to “fight” against evil. You only become the evil you are fighting against. Do not curse the darkness. Light a candle.

This is an important spiritual principle. As Gandhi is claimed to have said (but this isn’t what he really said), “You have the be the change you want to see in the world.” So, do not curse the sins of others, or fight against them. Rather, in all your thoughts, words, and actions, be love, peace, justice, compassion, understanding, tolerance, and every other good thing you can imagine. You will be better—thus the world will also be better.

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.