Our Phoenix did you know that you
Embodied all our dreams;
And at the time you left this earth
Our tears ran down in streams.
But tears of grief, with diamonds fill
The hole you left inside;
A shining image in the sky
Where memories reside.
When we look up perhaps we'll see
Reflected in your eyes,
That though you were a feathered friend
You were God in disguise.
(father of Phoenix)
Now, in my world of metaphor
The eagle is humanity.
We've built our nest of sticks that are
Religion and philosophy.
Each has a stick we claim to be
The relevation that is right.
The consequence of our beliefs;
A never ending human fight.
We beat all those we know are wrong,
Convinced that God is on "my side."
But in these fights I can't believe
That God is taking any pride.
Instead I think that if God is,
God has for us a final test.
To pass we must release our sticks
And live our lives without the nest.
Imagine how we all will feel
When we give up our "childish things"
And in the freedom we will find
We "soar as (if) on eagles' wings."
PHOENIX'S LEGACY 04/29-07/14 2010
Twelve thousand of us start to cry.
Deep sadness overwhelms us all.
Our Phoenix never got to fly!
We didn't hear our eagle's call
Of joy as it first used its wings
To show us how to leave our nest!
Without her can we drop those things
We must so we can pass God's test?
We should because its legacy
Is greater now that it has died.
Our eaglet is Humanity.
Its life could end before we tried.
AN EAGLE'S CRY
From far beyond where I can see
I hear an eagle's cry.
It is not made for joy in flight;
But is a mournful "why?"
"I'm looking for a place to land
But trees have disappeared.
The water is so tainted now
The fish are to be feared.
Why can't you see what will be done?
Oh why are you so blind?
Please understand when I am gone
You can't be far behind.
I don't know why I want to live.
I simple want to be.
The time is short, please leave your nest.
I plead, come soar with me.
read Phoenix: in memory
and Eagles' Vision
"Make no mistake, I'm in control."
That's what Barack Obama said.
I'm not sure why he wants to be
When so much life will end up dead.
Perhaps he sees another time
That dredges up his greatest fears.
If he is seen too slow to act
His term will end in just four years.
Obama's in another war
Which like the others is a sin.
He's fighting Nature in the Gulf
And this one he will surely win.
Then to the victor go the spoils,
Dead birds and all aquatic life,
So many miles of oil stained sand,
Unparalleled domestic strife.
Although he said, "I'm in control"
His claims of power are a fraud.
Obama may be president;
But the Economy is god.
She is a goddess we create.
Her heart is ice, her blood is black.
We worship her on bended knee
And still she stabs us in the back.
Will this disaster wake us up?
And will we finally stand tough?
Will we now tell the president,
"This time the cheque is not enough?
We want new lives without the cash;
To kill goddess Economy.
In place of her we'll worship life
Becoming what we each can be."
Barack Obama: attack on greed
Barack Obama: fighting for change
Barack Obama: my hope
Barack Obama: victory speech
Barack Obama: inauguration day
Barack Obama: professing change
Barack Obama: sacrificing lives
Barack Obama: healthcare
Barack Obama: a cautionary view
Barack Obama: winning the future
I had a vision of Jesus. He was dressed in his carpenter's smock and wore simple sandals. He was sitting unnoticed at a grand piano on a stage that overlooked all that Christianity had become. He acknowledged Ray Charles and began to sing this song.
"Look what they've done to my song, God.
Just look what they've done to my song.
To me they did not listen, God;
And now they've got the notes all wrong.
'Do unto others…' I said, God.
That's all I meant for it to be.
They've wrapped me in a fiction, God;
And now my song they cannot see.
Where in the world is my song, God?
Of it I see no evidence.
They are not singing my song, God.
What they are singing makes no sense.
I am confused by saving, God.
And all their worship wears me down.
I wish they would not follow, God.
I'd like to give them their own crown.
If they did "…unto others...', God,
Their myths would disappear, with strife;
And time used for soul saving, God,
Could then be used for living life.
To justify his healthcare plan
Obama let this sentence pass.
These changes let the poor climb up
A ladder to the middle class.
He said it is historic change;
And if it works there'll be no doubt.
For millions healthcare means they will
No longer have to do without.
Historic though it's said to be
The ladder is too short it seems.
The millions who begin to climb
Will still not reach up to their "dreams".
Joe Biden said from Virgil's lips,
For all, "The greatest wealth is health."
His sales pitch though, obscures the fact
The greatest health is bought with wealth.
So what, the poor are one rung up?
Life is for them still constant fights.
They're far from "life" and "liberty",
Supposed "inalienable rights."
"Created equal" they'll not be
Until Americans decide
Their brothers, sisters they will keep,
For purposes that coincide.
Barack Obama: attack on greed
Barack Obama: fighting for change
Barack Obama: my hope
Barack Obama: victory speech
Barack Obama: inauguration day
Barack Obama: professing change
Barack Obama: sacrificing lives
Barack Obama: a cautionary view
Barack Obama: his Gulf oil war
Barack Obama: winning the future
The explanation of life and related writings.
02/02/24
INTRODUCTION
Like everyone, I inherited an existence. Mine collapsed circa 1970 while I was at McMaster U, Hamilton, ON, Canada, getting a BA(math) and B. Phys Ed, so I could teach. While sorting through the rubble of my life I noticed, though not as pervasive as it is today, a continuum of varied and increasing conflict permeating our existence. I wondered why.
Though wondering for myself I thought I should find the reason for conflict before a student I might teach asked me. I couldn’t deduce the reason with math; nor did I think I found it in the 5 major religions and their thousands of offspring, or in the 11 volume history of philosophy I skimmed for electives.
So besides my formal degrees, I graduated with a major degree of motivation to find before I taught, the reason for conflict. I never taught. By the time I discovered the answer to why increasing conflict pervades our existence, I’d become, with the help of my brother, a self-employed carpenter.
I tried and failed to share the answer at least three times and each time I vowed to quit trying. The last was in 1998 when a friend of a friend, a philosophy professor, wished me good luck on other projects. To help keep my last vow I started an addition to my house. I received even more help in 2000 when I began caring for my parents.
But then, when my father died in 2004 I was motivated to try sharing my analysis one more time before I died. I was still thinking of a hard copy when a friend suggested I publish on a website. I’d never heard of websites nor could I type but with more help from my Mother I bought a computer, learned to type, and with expert help, created a website.
I first thought I’d bury the reason for conflict in an essay. But having already experienced web attention deficit disorder I decided to highlight the essence of it in my website logo and add context with blog posts.
Since there is no answer to “Why am I?”, attempts to answer it, such as the myriad religions and philosophies I skimmed, and a variety of other responses I found, are tries to fill the void. Though we can mix them, some may be similar and even have identical names, because we direct them to the void within us, our tries are all opposed and so cause conflict to the extent of our belief in them.
But, conflict is not inevitable. We can diminish it and resulting death to the degree we empty the void. Now, if we choose to empty the void, our lives are not then devoid of activity, on the contrary! Because it is essential, we each possess some remnant of “reaching out to the limits of our capacities, to others and to Nature’s God”, the natural activity that creates and tries to maintain all life.
So, even though in the 200k years since the birth of humanity we have replaced almost all our inherited natural activity with the human made unnatural, self-destructive activity of trying to fill the void, if we choose to empty the void, the remnants of our natural, self-creative activity will at least refill our lives and possibly answer “Why am I?”
I have been trying share these basic facts of life for a few years by advertising. Last year (2023) I bought 8 million page views with half the value of my home, without effect; but this time I won’t quit. The warnings about fatal climate change by hundreds of climate scientists over many more years have also been ignored.
However, I do have to reduce my advertising. If it is too late to prevent it, I’ll need a place to live where I can watch the increasing conflict within us, between us and with Nature, causing at least the death of us and maybe all of Nature, possibly even before I’d have died in peace.
If you feel moved to help me share these facts you can by using the share icon at the end of any post, notably my most recent piece of rhymed reason, “Analyzing Conflict”, or any other way of sharing. If you also click on the like icon you will see an explosion of hearts, an expression of my gratitude. 🙏 Doug E Barr.
Part 1.Nature’s ideal diet: It was designed to maintain our immune/ maintenance system at its optimum operating condition to protect us from both pathogenic and autoimmune diseases. It protected our predecessors from conception to the birth of humanity when they realized the mental capacity to choose. It can still protect us but over the millennia increasing numbers of us chose to ignore ’Her’ ideal, and thus our increasing disease. Specifically, ignoring the overlap causes, it could save the $34 billion cost of weight loss drugs, about $800 billion cost for treating type II diabetes, and many billions more in other healthcare costs.
Part 2. Nature’s ideal life: It protected our predecessors from conflict until the birth of humanity. It can still protect us but over the millennia increasing numbers of individuals chose to ignore ‘Her’ ideal and thus, our increasing conflict.
Part 3. The integration of parts 1 and 2
Part 4. Existential risks: They are the result of our ancestors increasingly choosing to ignore Nature’s nutritional ideal. They may be reduced by expanding our mental capacity beyond what was realized at the birth of humanity. It would only take an instant, but the time we have to make the necessary choice is quickly running out.
Part 5. Appendix: Mostly diet related math that may have caused the mathematically challenged to quit reading in the middle of Part 1.
