“Little evil would be done in the world if evil never could be done in the name of good.”

I love this above quote from Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, but I wonder what the real consequences might be of attempting to enact its words?   I say this because I wonder,  if her eloquent sounding statement actually has any “real meaning”  when we consider the possibly undefinable words it relies upon, “good and evil.”

If  the end of evil, in the name of good,  became a reality, would the basis for many of our best adventure stories vanish like fog in the morning sunrise?   In our most dramatic stories and plays, from ancient times onward, it is essentially the battle between good and evil that occupy center stage, despite the actor’s exuberant strutting and stammering.  Not to say there would not be enough to write about.  Just living, surviving, exploring, advancing society and technology, challenging the limits of our existence, reaching out to the beckoning call of the sea of space, to name just a few………..  would surely be enough to write about.  Just one type of “evil” would vanish, that being the actions of one being or group of beings, against another of opposing opinions or values.

This concept of  the “end of evil in the name of good”  makes me wonder  what is “evil?” How do we define “evil?”  We won’t touch this much right now as it has been debated for centuries and appears clearly unresolved to intellectual thinkers, though perhaps not so to religious ones!  Yet,  Marie, personally,  had no problem with expecting that evil could be defined by someone; If not, her quote makes no sense!

If we step away from living entities performing evil what else is evil?  Is there evil?  One enticing thought that comes from this discussion is can we define death as evil?  Perhaps it is unjust to call death an “evil”  after all, we don’t know what death is because we don’t know what comes after it (at least other than by faith), just before it.  However, this is a whole other subject and likely a floating away from the torrentouous  sea of thoughts that Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach’s words, seem to have set astorm.

But back to Marie. How many times can you look back on history and see that a war was fought in the name of “good,” but that good appears to have been very one sided?  Perhaps that means that one sided good is another name for “evil.”  In fact this appears to make a lot of sense, when you give it some grey cell time. Does that mean that whatever we do as a nation that we declare is “good” has to be seen by all as good to truly be good?

One of the salient issues of our era, at the moment, is Islamic terrorism. Islamic Terrorists claim that they are on the side of  good,  and those whom they are attacking are evil.  The West, mostly Christian and Jewish, in its essential values, sees it the other way around (for the most part). We do not often deny that we have made some poor decisions in our effort to “rescue”  other nations from the villainous grips of tyrannical leaders. History is replete with good guys waging war on evil.  We hope history will see us as the good guys. Maybe Marie’s statement is nonfunctional because of its dependencies?  Should we consider perhaps that forceful actions taken in the name of “good” are the issue and not the definition of good? In that case, evil might not be done if warfare was not allowed!

If only we could agree to ban war as a method of “overcoming evil” can you imagine how we might resolve our differences?  We might even be able to throw out trying to define good and evil.  Martin Luther King, amongst other good company, championed the concept of war free conflict (non-violent protest in his case). It does produce results, even without a martyr. Unfortunately the rioting thugs (who like to be misidentified as Afro-Americans, don’t know enough about the great men like Martin Luther King).

Perhaps a potentially better statment (though longer)  than hers might be considered.

• “Little evil would be done in the world if evil never could be done in the name of good”  might become…
• “little evil would be done in the world if warfare, of any sort,  was not permitted in an effort to replace perceived evil with perceived good.  

Warfare is also not so easy to define.  Is economic warfare war?  Is political manipulation and destabilization of nations war?

If we could ban “warfare”  of most types, it could potentially make for a great story. However, considering that the “natural order of our universe” appears to be the  survival of all living creatures who are dependent upon a hierarchy of species dominance and a food chain, it strains credulity.

Somewhere in our universe I know this story is being played out.  Ah…but to witness it in person and learn its secrets!  My exploration of this issue and slowly upcoming story currently labeled “The Carrnegg”  is an attempt to visit this time and place…….  stick around.

 

Explain It To Your Grandmother!

Science Fiction Is Fact,  Before It Can Be Proven.

— You may quote me on this.  Does this statement mean that anything you can conceive of,  can be and will be a reality?   Without spending the time it would take to explain this to my grandmother,  I will tell you that I believe the answer is yes!  In infinity, for example,  there are an unending number of “shades of you” on an unending number of worlds, much like our world, but different from the one you are now on.  Each world  just varies in “its nature” much as candles do in their light when you sit between two mirrors and watch the one candle next to you trail off into infinity in limitless iterations of  its fractal like images……..

As a hint to those of you who like science, are intrigued by this statement and like being swept away in hours of thought,  consider the implications of the fairly well accepted statement that our world is infinite. One of my favorite people,  Albert Einstein, said that,  “You do not really understand something until you can explain it to your grandmother.”   I believe this is true.  The only part that Einstein left out was that it could take hours to explain it to your grandmother. Not to mention the more difficult task of keeping her awake through the process.

A while back I gave up explaining things that took me hours to understand; well at least for the most part…. this compulsion often overcomes my minimal wisdom.   Over many years of college, I have listened to a few egotistic college professors babble on and on, from a position of their intellectual superiority, attempting to share their great knowledge with us commoners.  They either put me to sleep or I skipped their classes and read the text books in my dorm (a privilege supposedly allotted to us nerds who are out of high school).  I certainly do not want to be looking or even
smelling like them in my writing .  However,  I could not help but be attracted to the concepts that most of the great teachers spent their life focused on, learning for the joy of learning and the sea of thoughts it’s rains of concepts produced.

On the expostulating  side of things and as a better way of communicating complex thoughts often contradicting “common knowledge,” I chose to listen to the words of a far wiser man than these few long winded college professors,  Walt Disney.

Walt said,  “I would rather entertain someone  with the hopes of educating them then to educate them with the hopes of entertaining them.”   With great respect for a man who changed the world in a positive way and brightened all our lives;  I humbly strive to be walk in his shoes,  knowing I may never be able to fill them. I write Sci-Fi,  and hope that I entertain you and keep you up at night for hours of silent thought wondering, “could it be true?”   Why not start here with wondering could it be true? Every story I write is fiction (from the common point of view) but not from mine!  What about yours?  Are you willing to “expand your mind” without the drugs that were so alluring to those of us who grew up in the 60’s?

… Janr Ssor

Creative Genius, Kurt Hugo Schneider!

Religion Is What Keeps The Poor From Murdering The Rich

Napoleon Bonaparte said “Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”  Is that so today? Why did Napoleon believe this? Perhaps it was because he was thinking that the church was wealthy and the people poor?  This was indeed so back then and is pretty much true now.  The creation of disproportionate wealth was also true for  kings and other dictators then and now. Was his statement based on his historical understanding of the tenuous position that ruthless, selfish rulers had historically often created for themselves?

He certainly knew that the poor vastly outnumbered the rich and if they truly became aware of  their potential power, they could  possibly  take from the rich whatever they wanted.

I wonder if Napoleon would be surprised at the events of today?   Would it surprise him to see that madmen,  blinded by religious fervor and the rhetoric of power hungry clerics, use the power of  our modern day and ancient weapons to slaughter the common and innocent (not the wealthy)  in the name of what they call try to call “god.”

Would it amaze him to hear empowered leaders of nation states deny the very history their fathers had experienced? Liars are a common lot in history. But revisionists, daring to deny the history of their very fathers generation, in an era of instant communications, takes the art of lying to a new height.

I wish it was only the words of  Ahmadinejad  that made fools of his country and his fellow citizens in denying the holocaust, in recent history.  The videos of the Nuremberg trials and the newsreels  they showed,  during testimony,  are still fresh in the minds of free men (perhaps not the Millennials who appear to have missed a lot in their history classes). Unfortunately lying to your people is not just an Iranian phenomena.  Clinton, of course,  did not “have sex” in the oval office.  Nixon had his view of the story.  Bush may have intentionally exaggerated the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Those average people who live in North Korea, believe they have the best quality of life in the world, I am told. The mind police make sure this is so.

Perhaps, today we must try to assess the size of the lie and seek comfort in this distinction, though I find this personally unsatisfactory.  Possibly,  this may  have meaning for some.  Man is not perfect and when confronted with the public evisceration of  his ego, it is likely politicians, whose self esteem are buoyed up on the seas of opinion, will seek to lie (and for lots less than ego disembowelment).

Clinton may have lied about his sex life,  for which we would not seek to have him executed. Ahmadinejad however lied about the history of the most brutal destruction of 12 million people, that the main perpetrators themselves do not deny!  Well…. the Japanese have trouble with admitting to their mass rape stations they happily called “comfort stations.”   The Iranian people don’t have it so bad economically and so don’t want to lose what they have!  They have the profits of oil.  To rise up and take back their nation which is now controlled  by liars and religious fanatics however requires need and belief in what you can achieve.  I think the need is lacking, from their perspective, and perhaps we have “fallen from grace” as a role model to follow.  Just look at the pathetic quality of the candidates we have to vote for in the upcoming election! There are some really good liars here too.

Perhaps it is Iranian religion or the fear of  others who they do not know at their mosque,  that keeps the people from removing  their dictatorial and  fanatical  leadership.  Communist Russians feared expression when they did not know who they were talking to, so they learned double speak or did not speak out at all.  On the other hand, what model would Iranians seek if they did rise up and remove their leadership?  When we vanquished the iron fisted terror and torture of Saddam Hussein did that lead to a better land? Did these vastly different religious groups decide to work together or did the power vacuum create chaos?

Is our current national evolution and today’s American leadership a model,  something that everyone worldwide should be striving for?  In my experience of 70 years, we have certainly lost much of what made America great!  Because of hope and greater freedom,  I for one would not choose to live anywhere else; however, for people unaccustomed to more free choices and dreams of success, it might lead to chaos as we have seen in Iraq and elsewhere. I recall going to college 50 years ago and seeing this first hand. The first year sorted out who would stay. Children from homes where parents ruled with an iron fist and a leather strap, went crazy without that discipline. They were out drunk,  having sex, without thought of consequences, and rarely studying with any regularity, many failed and dropped out quickly.  Those who came from liberal homes, where parents let them learn self discipline (learn from their own mistakes) were no different at college than at home, for the most part they did just fine.  They did not require an authoritarian parent watching over them!

So back to the original question. What keeps the poor from murdering the rich?  I don’t see that religion is the answer, though it may play a part in it.  I think a good part of  it is the belief  that the poor have that they don’t have it so bad,  the belief that it could be worse in the hands of other leaders and the belief in whatever history they choose to believe in to support their chosen stagnation.  A great example of this is what Al Capone said after his conviction:  When convicted of heinous crimes, Al Capone said,  “All I did was try to provide the lighter pleasures for my countrymen and for that I live the life of a hunted man!”  He believed this, because it supported his ego, his belief that he was the “good guy.”  I think we accept pathetic leadership because we don’t believe we can do better and neither do they.  We all deceive ourselves, at least today, because that is how we gratify our egos!

One of the biggest problems today is the same that existed in the past, despite the power of instant communication.  People don’t believe they know the truth,  they just pick what truth they want to believe. With that kind of truth and little self belief in empowerment powerful people can do anything they wish and get away with it.  They can even make us think that this is as it has been and how it should be.  If we want to keep the little we have carefully hidden under our mattress we don’t want change!  After all If  AIG and Goldman Sachs are still the financial “hereos” on Wall St. any lie will do if well presented. Hank Paulson helped our country fall into hundreds of billions of dollars of debt and yet he is still a free man.  I don’t think religion is protecting the wealthy or the corporate cronyism of our corrupt congress and corporations,  it is more like disinformation (the quick version of revisionism) and a fear of losing the last grains of wheat in our grimy clutching hands.

Even more powerful than disinformation, there is the modern version of “Let them eat cake.”

This version is meant to be literally true as its power was early on recognized by Shakespeare, “Caesar: Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look, He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.”  There is nothing like a welfare check to keep the “masses” in control.  Religious conviction is the hope of reward but reward is the hope in today’s deceitful politicians.

……….. Janr Ssor

 

 

 

 

The Power Of A Female Smile. And, How To Avoid Divorce!

At a MeetUp conversation group, the other day, amongst 12 different faces, one new one, stood out as unusually beautiful, even though age had weathered this gift of  female birthright. There was something

special about her smile, to me.  A subconsciously sensed, but consciously unrecalled message in her smile reminded me of something warm and positive.  It was something I knew well, but could not or did not want to recall.  To a writer, like me, it was fascinating and would linger well beyond the two hours at Panera. Not that this smile was just for me, not at all.  This pretty lady shared her smile and eye contact with nearly every person she spoke to. That too was a notable, magical gift, she had acquired. Something moms teach their daughters when they wordlessly remind them of how much stronger they, with their smiles and eye contact, are than men.  In sales we are taught about body language.  As it turns out, body language and the emotion behind the words is 90% of what sells the customer, not the facts and the figures.  A smile and warm eyes is 90%!

There were 3 men (me included) and 9 women at this meetup that Marvin had helped organize; this is what happens statistically when you are 70.  Of course the magical gentleness of smooth facial contours, defined sexy, muscular limbs and blossoming floral lips had now evaded most all attending; yet, a smile was apparently ageless! I have often wondered and pondered the power of a female smile.  So did my subconscious in the middle of the night 3 days later when it woke me up to know what it had discovered. Google’s crawler bots should only be so good!

What our minds can do is just beyond anything a computer can do now or in the near future. For your “sleeping” mentality to be able to sort through a lifetime of  visual experience,  find a match, its contextual physical and emotional experience and resurrect them from the past is beyond my comprehension; yet,  it happens all the time and did for me.  I recalled the fine smile lines and shapes her facial features formed when she smiled. It was clearly that of a long unseen female friend I had not run into in half a lifetime. A friend with whom I had experienced nothing but the positive. Even the eye contact that came with the smile, was that of this lady too.

When I awoke in the night I thought about this smile and the warm friendly eye contact.  I recalled the positive memories of this lady I had known.  We never lived together but went dancing occasionally and talked over dinner now and then.  It was always joyful.  How can you forget what is always inspiring?  How deeply it engraves its image in your mind and your heart!  It amazed me, but I am old enough to understand reality.  Living together is far different from casual friendship.   Perhaps that is a reason for married couples to make sure they smile lots more often and especially to share brief but warm eye contact that says “I love you, I want you.”

I read a great short story the other day posted at  3375f.com.  The story was about love,  about the 5 love languages and how to overcome relationship challenges.  A smile and eye contact, I believe, belong most strongly to the love language of physical touch, but they certainly relate to all the love languages as they are universal.  So why do I talk about a female smile and not a male one? They are in fact both powerful.  Nevertheless, a female smile is far more powerful.  When your mind is capable of reaching down into the near infinite depth of your experience in life and resurrecting a long dead memory just from a smile, it tells you something. It reminds me of something I learned in my medical studies of child development.  At birth a child’s eyes are focused at about 1 to 2 feet. Everything beyond is a blur. For quite a while infants cannot change focus.  Babies who are nursing, focus on Mom’s face and they cannot do otherwise. Is it any wonder that,  for most healthy men, the experience of a female smile reminds them of contentment, peace, tranquility and security?  An infant’s mind, which is, in my conception, photographic in memory, is over and over associating a female smile with everything wonderful about nursing, physical warmth and gentle touch, assuming life at that time is not a disaster for mom.  The power of a female smile is ingrained in men and women as strongly as any possible repeated hypnotic experience can be!

How does this bear on avoiding divorce?  In my experience as a doctor for 44 years, I heard sad stories from many beautiful (in their 40’s) women getting divorced.  I often asked or they offered why.  They needed someone to listen and I tried to make myself available.  It was more often than not, that their husbands had had an affair with a younger lady. Husbands would give up beautiful sexy wives and the joys of family and children just for romance with a younger woman! It blew my mind.   Then it occurred to me, it was not that simple.  Though the women were beautiful to me, perhaps they had lost their magic in the eyes of their husbands?   I thought long about my experience and the fact that I too was married for a second time; though in my case I had not had an affair. Then it occurred to me, perhaps the women had forgotten to smile when the lady by the “water cooler” at work made a real effort to smile. Perhaps the husband had forgotten to smile and look into his wife’s eyes with love.  This simple technique, if coming from the heart with honesty, is likely the most powerful deterrent to divorce and disloyalty.  I also love one of my patient’s rules for staying married happily.  It goes like this: “if you have an argument and are angry, give it 10 seconds of anger and then forget it forever!”  It is a teaching in the bible that anger and resentment to others destroys ourselves and love.  It is why the bible teaches us to love everyone around us, especially our families.  It is not that we are taught to love for their benefit, but for ours!  Those who cling to anger and resentment in a relationship are clinging to destruction!

It is nice to feel the warmth of a familiar smile and warm eyes.  Like the sun on a Florida morning warming your back as you walk from the cool ocean waters, it is always welcome. It is important in marriage and relationships you value to remember that the sun shines in many places at once. It is important to remember that if another’s smile seems too entrancing, then you need to work on igniting the fires of love at home.  Consider starting with a smile and remember why you love your partner when you look them in the eyes.

………. Janr Ssor

 

 

Different Styles Of Thought Or Consciousness At Birth And Beyond.

What if you were amongst the few who are born truly telepathic,  what would your birth experience be like? Would you survive after birth at all and if so for how long?  If you did survive what would you see without your eyes and how might that affect who you are and what you do with your remaining life time?  In essence, upon achieving consciousness, you would be one with the entire universe finding yourself part of something infinitely large and yet knowing that you were physically small by contrast. It is something that you might ponder if you are predisposed to the lengthy thought process that is  the particular disease of creative writers.  It is something I lie in bed thinking about at 5:00 am when I would like to be asleep blissfully as you are.

On the other hand what if you were not born telepathic,  what would your experience be like? What would it be like in a world of singular aloneness?  In your small space your mind would struggle  like a sponge to absorb every bit of sensory data possible so you could become one with the terrifying vastness  around you. In so doing you would hope to not be frightened by your painful smallness in the now suddenly unaccountably large and unpredictable universe.

Do either of these contrapuntal scenarios exist?  It is my contention that they both exist and all the time, at each human parturition.  I believe that at each child’s genesis they are infinitely large, and connected cosmically with every other living thing, call it telepathy if you choose. At the same time they are focused on their physical smallness and struggling to incorporate all sensory data possible so that they can make sense of and take control of that which is their new physical environment.  It is truly terrifying even without the slap on the ass from the supposedly wise gynecologists. It is terrifying because, since they became sentient, many months ago, their environment has been consistently warm, cozy and full of love and nurture both mental and physical; but, now it has suddenly transformed with the psychological impact of a car crash!

Have you not noticed, as a parent, that children are “sponges” for knowledge?  Everything they see and hear becomes part of them, as if they were a movie studio’s camera.  They all appear to have total recall (and may infact have this trait).  On the other hand, not long after they become able to communicate, in some meaningful manner, we discover that they, at times, play with “imaginary” friends. They do this in our culture, at least until we become concerned.  They do this until we tell them that there is no such thing as imaginary friends and that it is time to “grow up” and stop this nonsense.

The sponge like behavior also becomes less and less, for many, as the experience a child possibly absorbs becomes more and more contaminated with doses of bitters and pain.  After all, all of existence is a sign wave. There is nothing that does not run like hot and cold that we can perceive, probably because that is all there is to our universe. Our nerves only respond to opposites, change!  After you splash into a warm bathtub,  in a few minutes,  the initial sensation of heat transforms itself, in your perception, to a  constant temperature,  hardly noticeable. You need change to be conscious.  For the neonatal, the fun and security of becoming one with the universe by learning all it has to offer becomes far less joyful with negative experience.  Experiences such as those punctuated with the pain of an angry, frustrated parent’s hand slap or that caused by less friendly bacteria trying to eat us from the inside out after spoiled food is consumed.  So we don’t really want to remember this pain and we may learn to dissociate from it, since we cannot turn senses on or off at will.

As for being one with the universe by “telepathy,” if we should call it that, it too has its pain. Consider the disturbing confusion of  connecting with a being that has no eyes.  This being is called a Spheron.  This spherical being  connects with the universe by sonar like transmissions, much like a bat, but in the radio wave frequency range.  It senses its position too by the shifts in gravitational and magnetic fields coming from its planetary home, much like a bird or bees do.  It has almost no physical structure because it is mostly energy. It is spherical as that is the natural form that energy takes as it radiates (at least in this quadrant or our universe where the physics we try to comprehend is mostly prevalent).  This being does not interact with many of its like others, there is no value.  No, in fact its created purpose is like that of honey bees, it gathers information (like pollen) from that thought process and experiences of planets and shares that with other planets much as a bee shares pollen. If you thought that planets are not sentient, just for the moment imagine they might be; it will help with the concepts we are discussing.   The Spheron shares that “experience” by warping space and traveling across the universe instantaneously (at least this is how we would describe it).  From its perspective, there is no time, no space and no distance.  These are the delusions of physical beings like us.

A telepathic connection with this alien mind would be literally Earth shattering.  It could be far worse than a trip on LSD!  Those with acute telepathy, to maintain their sanity, would quickly withdraw to the comfort of their small, warm, cozy physical space.  So perhaps the genesis of that which we call people, derives from the balancing act of  sanity trying to maintain its integrity by figuring out how much total recall or total communication makes sense for the environment into which it, the newly created being, has been unceremoniously dumped.

Out of every black sky filled with frightening lightning and torrentuous storms comes the birth of new plant life,  the flowers of a sunshine filled morning.  Perhaps in a similar manner so do we.

Janr Ssor

 

 

 

 

I sat alone wondering how I got here?

I awakened slowly in the unfamiliar bed as vague aches and dull pains began to express themselves through my 70 year old body.  It was my nerves responding to the cascade of hormones that created consciousness. I was almost awake but my muscles felt heavy like the lead acid battery I had carried from my dad’s car long ago…long ago, I was a kid then.  I pulled the damp cold  sheet, I reflexly clutched in my stiff right hand, up to cover my head and shield my naked scalp from the moisture in the damp earthen scented air; but, the cloth was tucked too tightly under the foot of the hard metal frame forming the strange narrow bed, I lay upon.  I never tucked sheets under the foot of my soft bed as they bent my toes in an unnatural posture causing me pain.  With that thought and a tragically slow growing awareness, I recalled that I was not home and that the groggy sleep I was struggling to overcome was not natural.  If only I could open my eyes, or did I not want to?

Memories were beginning to drip resoundingly, like annoyingly loud rain drops on a metal roof. Richard and I had fastened those sheets of corrugated rusty metal to the  pine log cabin we  had built in the Everglades many years ago when we were in High School. When it rained on those mosquito filled night in the swampy South Florida it was like a timpani of dischord.  Now however, each chilly drop was washing off the dirt and dust that covered the eye of my mind and as they did so, a picture of last night emerged from beneath my efforts to forget.

At last, against my will, I remembered!  I was in a “room” at the old Florida Department of Corrections prison, up by Jacksonville, that was now commanded by the US Army.  It was winter and despite the high water level of the ground in Florida, these windowless concrete boxes had been built totally below ground to make them escape proof and very much like solitary confinement.

In my tight stomach, hunger pains and nausea were both awakening in disharmony.  I had not eaten in a long time other than the chemical laden brew the armed soldiers had forced me to drink sometime ago….  It might have been yesterday.

The deafening lack of sound began to play tricks with my mind and I heard them speaking to me again from beneath the depths of the drug induced fog.  What was it they wanted? Oh yes, they wanted to know how I knew what I did not know!   They laughed at my stupidity for it had been easy for them to find me. The on-line casino computer had identified me, over many months, as winning too much, too frequently.  They knew for sure that I could beat the odds at least online. Starvation had a way of making people like me careless.  Winning the Bitcoin credits  had allowed my wife and I to purchase canned rations and sterile water from the service center.  We had not died horribly as we had watched our neighbors do.

I closed my eyes tightly trying to not awaken. I did not want to face another day of this reality.  That was it!  That was why I was there!   Some religious lunatic in government believed that we could undo what had happened by prayers from those mentally gifted with prophetic skills.  What was his name?  I had heard it mentioned on the underground Internet broadcast.  My wife, Nancy,  had told me about his teachings years ago at the University of Florida, theology class.  It was that old dream of each of us creating our reality by choosing to think it so.  What had Nancy said?  Oh yes,  “Believing Is Seeing.”   That was professor Seamann’s credo.  Pain stabbed at my heart! Where was Nancy, they had separated us weeks ago when we were dragged in for interrogation. I could not bear that thought and tried to imagine myself seeing what was around me.

Finally a picture formed in my mind.  My eyes were open, I was sure, but it was totally dark so there was nothing to see.  In memories eye they had wanted to know how I constantly beat the odds.  They wanted to know how they could use me to help them do the same. They had records dating back many years to when they secretly drugged my sister and  put her in an insane asylum to ostensibly help my family.  Their goal, with her, was the same then as it was now with me.  I tried to recall how this had happened and somehow through the drug induced lethargy and image managed to form.

Kim Jong-un’s N. Korea had launched the  high altitude nuclear missiles, through their proxy radical terrorist organizations.  It was easy for the terrorists to purchase the missiles, from North Korea, in exchange for the petro-dollars that North Korea desperately needed.  It was simple form Kim Jong-un to imagine evading retaliation too, as who would America retaliate against when missiles came from several distant countries all at once?   Countries who supposedly supported us but were riddled with radical terrorists we were helping them oppose.

The EMP, electromagnetic pulse, had wiped out 3/4 of the  computer systems in America in just moments.   On the underground internet it was quickly  estimated that a  year later 80% of our population would be dead from starvation, disease and the ensuing chaos.  It was then I had made the mistake of using the underground Internet to gamble at the virtual casinos.  It was amazing what starvation will do to your otherwise clear thought process.

Now the military hoped to reverse,  what could not be undone, by using PSI to win WW III. So far, it was a non-nuclear battle, except in sporadic sputtering attempts at eliminating terrorism; But, hell was hell no matter how you define its fires.

The dull sound of a distant heavy metallic security bar’s clang echoed through the concrete slabs of my tomb.  They were coming again………..

Janr Ssor.

 

Why I Am In Awe Of “Blue Lives” And My Brother Neil.

Did you ever wonder why you are alive, why you were created?  Understand what I am about to share with you and you are one step closer to the answer and to why you should be in awe of most Police Officers.

When I was a little kid, about 3 years old, I recall thinking that almost all beings of my age were insane!  I watched one day as my parent’s guest’s children hit each other, pulled toys from each other’s hands and put buggers in their mouths!  I heartily contrived a method to convince my parents to let me listen to adult conversation in the living room so that I did not have to play with “other children.”   These other children,  were kids my age. However, it was the first time we ever had other children at my home.  We had never invited other “small people” too my home before.   Because of this experience, I had my first glimpse of understanding the  reason for the values my parents were trying to teach me.  Values about what matters, at least in behaviour.  You might say it was my first child’s eye view of what appeared to me to be Sodom and Gomorrah.

Many years later, 67 to be exact, my brother Neil, suggested that I needed a gun because the the lunacy, I had learned about at age 3, had not all dissipated with the laundering of young minds in churches, synagogues and educational institutions.

It was at this time, that I retired from 44 years of doing the opposite of, what I thought those violent 3 year old had done, my practice of medicine as an eye doctor. Considering the news and corruption in our government,  I thought Neil was correct in suggesting I needed a gun!  In fact he suggested I needed a concealed carry permit too.  My wife who is the most compassionate caring person I have ever known, thought she should have a gun too, even though the thought of it frightened her.  We had just moved to Florida, from NY, and it is slightly easier to acquire and carry a gun in Florida than in NY.  I also think it is “safer” on the streets of Florida than it was in NY. Nevertheless we proceeded to purchase firearms and learn to use them under the expert training of my licensed and accredited teacher, Neil.

Was I comfortable with guns?  For 8 years, when I was a teenager, I went to Coral Gables H.S. and to the University of Miami in Florida.  Back then the Everglades was just a short ride away, on my motorcycle.  With shot guns strapped to the back of my bike, we would head out to the wilderness and hunt for birds for lunch (most frequently dining on fine Whoppers at Burger King as the birds were quicker than we were).  Despite this familiarity with weapons,  even holding a pistol 50 years later was unnerving!  My shotgun was, by contrast,  easy.  Crack it open and look to see if its two chambers were loaded or empty; the pistol was a mystery.  The safety always turned on when you loaded the shotgun. It was hard to make a mistake.  The pistol was a black box with what looked like too many possibilities to make a mistake.  Worse yet, Neil said, that If I did not keep it loaded, at home, it was of no more value than a paperweight (and of course he was right).  I was not comfortable with the pistol, though my shotgun did seem familiar.

My wife and I acquired pistols and went through books on safety, handling, responsibility and hours of time at the shooting range with Neil.  We made sure we knew how to use the mysterious and very dangerous weapons, we had acquired, in a safe and confident manner.  The “safe and confident” part is what made me understand why “blue lives” not only matter but should be held in reverence.   Owning a gun is a lot of responsibility so  Neil loaned me several books to read, written by the NRA.  Just as risk and benefits had been shared in my motorcycle safety course, the NRA’s books outlined the risks and benefits of gun ownership. They clearly and repeatedly stressed the need for hours of thought, planning and learning before ever handling a gun. Thought about what it was like to use one.  What dangers might come to others nearby, from gun usage, even in self defense.  How to plan for defensive usage to mitigate risk to others in the vicinity.  What were your responsibilities if you had a weapon and the opportunity arose for you to protect another or many others? What misery  would you feel if you had to use a weapon to save your life and yet in so doing killed your opponent?  What risks for unjust prosecution might come upon you, from the legal system, even if you did the right thing 100%.  How might your neighbors judge you, even if you were exonerated for clear self defense?

One day, I sat at home reading and re-reading the owners manual for my semi-automatic pistol.  I had his overwhelming need to understand it mechanisms.  I had to be able to picture in my mind the way the Beretta’s parts  worked.  I wanted to understand it the way I understood my car.  Finally how it worked sunk in and to prove it to myself, I gingerly picked up my loaded pistol,  removed the magazine and with some growing confidence (and much care), ejected the 7th bullet from the chamber.  I now knew the gun was unloaded.  I then reloaded the magazine,  racked the gun to load the first shell into the chamber and added one more bullet to the magazine as Neil had taught me to do.  It was again ready to fire at a moments notice. I put it away safely but easily within my reach.  I am not paranoid and never expect to have to use it; however, I feel it is my responsibility as a citizen of the USA to exercise my right to bare fire arms.  I do so even though I do not feel entirely comfortable with having one in my home or in my hands.  My forefathers knew why they wrote this law and I respect them for creating this country and its laws.

So why am I in awe of my brother Neil and the O’Briens, O’Reillys, Kennedys and O’Sullivans, who wore blue uniforms and shiny copper covered buttons when I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn?  I now understand the huge responsibility of gun ownership.  I have little doubt that every COP on the street has been down this thought path many times. To know that the policemen and women of my country go to work every day knowing they may have to use their weapons, leaves me in awe!   I thought being a doctor and making the right life saving decisions on a daily basis under pressure was a big thing. Now however, I think that what I did for 44 years, to some extent,  pales in comparison to what peace officers do every day.  Just as I am in awe of the brave men and women in uniform who defend our country and risk their lives every day, I am in awe of the men and women in blue!  Now I know what happened to the “insane” kids who grabbed toys, punched other kids and threw sand at each other in the sand box.  They took a different path to responsibility, compassion and pride. They became blue lives because we all matter to them.  I am in Awe!

….. Janr Ssor

 

 

What You Think Upon Comes Closer To You And……

Keep your focus and priority on what you love, for if it is taken for granted… it will diminish or disappear. ~ WOW ~

via Window 1255 – Count your blessings — A Window Of Wisdom

Thinking Outside The Box – Creative Ideas

In response to the question – “Where do the unusually creative ideas come from?”

I don’t know what your mind is like; as I have never been in it. All I know is my friends tell me that I do not think like them.

Wherever I have been involved in any organization’s leadership (many times) or just time with friends, people end up telling me,  “you think outside the box.” Those who really know me well say, “you live outside the box.” From most people this is a compliment occasional it could be a less positive comment; but in my case, I have never cared.

Reviews of my writing periodically involve comments about my creative suggestions and again outside the box thinking.  It is simple, this is who I am.  My books and short stories have simply flowed from my fingers. No matter how outrageous the story, there seems no limit.  In other words,  I do not believe in “writer’s block.”

I have always chosen to live in change and challenge.  When I write a story it does not go through the process some writers  are taught about planning,  outlining and finally filling in the details.   I simply start writing about something that has come to mind at 4:30 AM, quite often. What is really exciting is that as I write the story,  I am reading it for the first time!  It is as if someone is telling it to me and I am taking

notes.

If you have ever enjoyed reading an exciting story (and I hope you have),

World of Magic. Female portrait with abstract world in hand

this is almost exactly my experience writing it! As for the “out of box thinking,” I don’t actually think this was a conscious choice.  My mom had this genetic thing that she gave to me and so does my daughter.  My mom did a lot of writing and she was always up at 4:00 in the morning.  Though she did not share much with me (we did not see eye to eye),  she did say however that it was quieter, early in the morning, when the noise of everyone’s minds thinking were not there. Now there is something to think about!

I wake up at 4:30 AM and have these ideas or hypnagogic
dreams that are more real than reality.  From these experiences,  I often begin writing.  If a story ever seems to stop,  I take a long walk or bike ride and it begins writing itself again.  My lifestyle is not “normal” either and I like it that way.

At least for the last 5 or 6  years, for breakfast I have salads with some protein in them.  Lunch is “normal”  but I do not do dinner or meet socially for dinner.  I believe that dinner is a modern invention of civilization created to please restaurant owners. It is much like shopping for Christmas presents for 6 months before Christmas is an economic contrivance.  Eating after 4:00 pm,  in my opinion is bad for your health.  It denies your body an opportunity to clean itself as it does when fasting.  This is where the term Break-fast came from.  In primitive times,  as we evolved, most of us ate during the day when we could forage for food or hunt.  In the evening we rested and fasted.  Yes I know there was fruit and nuts that you could store, even in a cave.  Our bodies have evolved around this paradigm, but we follow that created by the electric light and food as pleasure culture. …….. a topic for another day.

In any case,  I sat down to write about 4:30 am, I think.  If you have studied Rosicrucian literature, as I have, you will know the secret system for solving problems.  I find that the answer comes at 4:30 am.

My next book is now 80% created.  It is called (for now) “The Carnneeg.”   I may publish some early chapters of it on a site like Booksie.   We shall see.  If so you will find the links on the social media,  like Facebook  or Twitter.