105. When I'm not blue hot flame, I'm no hope. I can't bring others to that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4tEaopTstE

 

 

'We are all extremists.  We are ere extremists for love, or extremists for hate,' to paraphrase Dr. King.   To paraphrase Jesus,  'I came to bring a fire and oh how I wish it were blazing already.' 

 

This, is what it is to die to head and flesh, and Live in Heart.  This, by different words and name, is what Jesus died to give us – Life, Burning with LIFE, the Light on the Hill, Blue Hot Flame, LIFE ITSELF, or Death.  Those are the only two options.  INSHE Warrior, Truly, not in our imaginations, our delusion, but Honestly, Truly measuring up to those that have been most like our Creator – on all 105 characteristics.

Possibly the hardest to defend academically of all these essays, quite possibly the most important of all these essays, among the most difficult and important of the metaphors, and mixed metaphors.  After my second major hunger strike to avert environmental Armageddon ended, just about a year ago, June 2011, 50 days in front of the White House, oh, I realized that I was doing the best I knew how to avert environmental Armageddon, and that I was not doing well enough.  I don't remember what hit me first - the realization that I finally knew enough to design a tool, a personal trainer to increase the odds I would become what the world needed of me; I don't remember if that came first, or if the notion of burning at blue hot flame came first.  Maybe sometime I'll have a chance to retrace that, and I would be able to do so because of the various postings of such ideas on the Start Loving blog.

 

But quickly they became hand-in-hand, and the notion that I needed to burn hotter, I think it came on the second to last major hunger strike, the one in the November-December timeframe, 50 days again. I think the notion of burning at blue hot flame came then, and I wasn't, I was smoldering I was anywhere between minus numbers and 3,3.5.  And the notion that unless I learned to burn hotter, whatever that meant, but it meant a lot to my nervous system, and I was correct, that I was no hope in igniting others.  Profoundly correct. 

 

There is a delightful, important expression - the fish are the last to discover water. 

So after seeing a hundred and four characteristics of history's high impact unviolent warriors, 105 presents itself to me, the last, and the one that most makes sense of them all.  Unless I'm burning hot enough, unless you are burning hot enough, you can't bring the fire that Jesus spoke of.  You can't be the extremist for Love, you can't bring about extremists like Dr. King spoke of.  Water boils at, is it 120°, so the flame underneath can be in 119° forever, or for a few seconds it can get to 120 and then drop below, and the water will never boil. 

 

It is so immensely tempting, the most promising of us - well I'm doing better than anyone else today. I did well yesterday. I did well last week, it's okay that I'm down now.  Well, in some sense it's okay.  We can't do better than we can do.  But if what matters is giving a decent life to the next 200 billion people - I'm blue hot flame long enough, intense enough, for others to catch fire, or I might as well move on, because all depends on enough people burning at blue hot flame, which is the heart in charge; the heart fully engaged and accountable to the global neediest.

 

Back in September if you look at this jpg, far right, Loving was smoldering, never conceived of getting to blue hot flame, was sure he could not.  And in inventing much of this tool along the way, and in capturing many of the ideas from history's great unviolent warriors, he finally arrived at blue hot flame. It took about 8 months.  

 

When I think of the very most promising people I know, they are about where Loving was in September, far right.  In each case I see the opportunity to progress as far and as fast as I, or maybe faster. 

 

EXCEPT, the desire is missing, in all but maybe one case.  Oh, how I pray I'm wrong, about the others.  Jesus, King, Gandhi, Alice Paul, Loving… came for those literally dying for a world better than the status quo.  That is why, that is why the 'gate is narrow, and few shall enter in.'  They can live with the status quo.  They can take, they will kill Truth, God, Hope… every time, to stay within the status quo – 'no change,' the status quo of the right; 'no fundamental personal risk,' the status quo of the left.  And no one dying to be the middle way – a world better than the status quo, regardless of personal risk.

 

You don't have that much time.  The personal trainer has given you an opportunity to get there more quickly.

 

You can't say you didn't know.

 

Will you be the 'seed' on the path, on the rock, among the thorns, or on good ground? 

The odds, the world, is totally stacked against you.

 

And you, are their only hope.

104. You're dying for something, dying 'to' all else. We all are. I'm dying for Humanity, Loving, Joy, Creation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kKgzI023pw

 

You know anyone who isn't dying for something?  You probably do not.  No, you probably haven't thought of it this way.  You have an uncle who's dying for the local baseball team to win.  You have a young niece that's just dying for a young man to ask her out on a date, a certain young man.  You have an aunt who's dying for things to stabilize at work, to get along with her boss, to keep her job.  You have an uncle who is dying for it to be time for that golf vacation that he's been dreaming of and working toward every day for a year.

 

Gandhi was dying for the liberation of India. Nelson Mandela was dying for the end of apartheid. Jesus was dying for the end of the reign of greed.  Alice Paul was dying for her sisters to have equal rights with men.

 

How frequently do we step in, in our own minds, or with words, 'Oh, uncle, you shouldn't be 'dying' for that golf vacation, that's so morbid!'  In our culture which caters to the head and the flesh, intoxications, selfishnesses there of, it's entirely appropriate that we die, that were dying for selfish things.  But it's an indictment of our way of life, our way of being, if we're dying for unselfish things.  And we can't have that now, can we?

 

But there is more to it  than that.  Our measured, through studies, our measured amount of working memory, that which holds our 'conscious' thoughts at any second, is immensely small, finite - 1 major, and maybe a 2nd minor thoughts in any second.  So quite literally, that conscious thought, goal, thing... we are 'dying for', is 'killing,' displacing, keeping out of consciousness a virtually infinite number of competing things we could be 'dying for.'  Right?  Do you think Gandhi was struggling to not be dying for a golf vacation?  At the point that he so became that which was dying for justice in India, he died to the golf vacation, the law practice, the business suits....  And, at the point that we die to the values, the sanctioned 'wants' of this sickest of all societies, we 'die' to our global neediest, to Joy, to Peace, to meaningfulness…. 

 

What are you dying for?

 

What are you dying to?

 

Are you ok with that?

103 - Entropy, evil, decay wins by default, every second that I am not, INSHE warriors are not it's defeat. Every second

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MiLpkwZlo8

 

Have you ever thought about this? I had not till a couple years ago. I'm no physicist, sadly, but the second law of thermodynamics, the law of entropy, is that everything breaks down over time unless an equal or greater amount of energy is expended to prevent that, or to create beyond what's already been created.  A tree will eventually succumb to entropy; the sidewalks and buildings in DC are every second, victims of entropy.  In some cases the buildings and sidewalks, it's very clear that no efforts, no sufficient efforts have gone toward their upkeep, maintenance, or enhancement, and the unopposed ravages of entropy are clear.  And, with some it's very evident that loving care to overcome the ever present entropy has been at work.

 

You know, an activist including yourself, faces this on a daily basis.  A True Activist, is, exactly, the counter to entropy, evil, destruction, exploitation of the global neediest.  'Well, I get tired,' 'I get burned out.' 'I tried, I did an action last month, I wrote a really important blog last week,' 'I undertake a really important project next week....'

 

The true, effective unviolent warriors throughout history were humans.  They were not super-humans, but relative to most of us that are so deformed, so crippled psychologically and spiritually, they appeared super-human; but they're not.  And for years, or decades, or their entire life, they don't burnout.  For most people their hearts, that literally beat in their chest, don't burnout for 60, 70, 80, 90 years; nor do their kidneys; nor do their livers; nor does their skin.  These persist and succeed because at some level the understanding is in them that if they falter, in the case of the beating heart, for a second, it's over.  So, for 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years - no faltering, constantly and successfully overcoming entropy, and creating anew.  The skin does what it has to including something like 40 billion cells self-terminating per day so that the, I guess trillions of skin cells stay healthy, the body of skin cells stays healthy. 

 

Healthy tissue, healthy organisms are 24/7 devoted to defeating entropy. If you're reading, or listening to this you probably consider yourself an activist.  Is this a correct assessment of you?  Are you a 24/7 counter to entropy?  Were the potent activists throughout history of 24/7 counter to entropy?  Seems to me Gandhi was.  Seems to me King was. 'Oh, but he womanized.'  What, 16 hours a day?  I don't think so.  16 hours a year maybe.  An 80-year-old can have a heart with an occasional arrhythmia imperfection and live effectively. 

 

Perfection is not the issue. Excellence is.

102. I’m exactly like a prospector, in a really unpromising stream, prospecting for the least glimpse of Heart(s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gExD5Pr2xk

 

Creating the largest company in the country by wealth, Apple, was year-by-year, month by month as much a matter of finding the 1 million right employees as it was anything else.  Fortunes were made during the gold rush, some for noble reasons - the child needed an expensive operation, the family refugees in Europe needed funds so that they could come and join their loved ones in the United States; loved ones living in blighted cities and funds needed to bring them to a cleaner better place. 

 

And hour after hour, day after day, realization of those dreams depended upon painstaking, agonizing, second after second, minute after minute, day after day, month after month... sifting through sand for the glint of gold; with few, if ever, moments of success.

 

If there's to be a future worth living for the next 2000 generations, that dream will happen the same way.   This dream looks really bad, really low prospects.   The stream of opportunity has been sifted through for the easy stuff, and there is no easy stuff.  There are no obvious glimmers of heart.  Oh, occasional kindness. 'Fools gold,' not to be derogatory; 'fools gold;' not, not the family emergency response. 

 

But the claim, the stretch of river, of the stream, that the prospector has access to, is what it is.  There's the prospect of giving up, but that's giving up on the prospect of the operation for their child.   And, if they're human, if they're humane, that's probably not going to happen; they'll just keep on trying.  

101. All I want is a clear view of the battlefield so I know how to best fight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS-VtT41BQ8

 

A healthy mother sees her son surrounded by an angry mob about to attack him.  What does that healthy mom want to know - how to escape, herself, to avoid being hurt herself?  She wants to know the battlefield, including what resources are available, how many attackers are around her son, what avenues of attack she has, what avenues of escape he might have.  She wants to know the battlefield.  It's not about her.  It's about him - what help she might call - that's part of the battlefield.  To protect herself?  To protect her son.

 

If you want to know whether you're an unviolent warrior of hope to the world, or just hope to your own gratification, my brothers and sisters all, if you want to know, then look at yourself.  Are you looking for the way that's safe for you?  Are you looking for the way that your buddies will want to go along with?  Is there anything that is rivaling your interest in simply knowing all aspects, all salient critical aspects of the battlefield - what's the best chance of winning; what's the best chance of winning now; what resources are available; what strategy seems the most promising...? 

 

If you're like 99.9999% of the activists, then those are not your key questions.   What can we raise funds for?  What do I like to do?  What would be fun?  Who will go along with it? Will enough people go along with it?  What messaging is popular these days?  What messaging is in vogue?  What will the press think? 

 

As secondary topics these are not inappropriate questions.   But in the 'activism' of the last 40 years these are never secondary.   They are the central, the only questions. 

 

And what the unviolent warrior throughout history that has been of any hope has wanted to know - tell me about battlefield, I'll figure everything else from there.  I want to know about the battlefield. I want appropriate intelligence on what's going on - who's on our side; who is the opposition;  who's committed;  who's just 'talking;' what resources might we acquire;  how much time do we have left; and on, and on, and....