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12-29-01
ARE YOU A
DEMOCRACY?
Deena Metzger says we are all "nation states." Are we
democracies or dictatorships?
You know people who must always have things their way. They are
dictatorships seeking a place to happen. And if they happen your way,
don't allow them to pull you into their nation state or you will be
their slave.
Some people are like Congress. They can talk forever (especially on C
Span), and go to endless committee meetings, but cannot make a decision.
They may be a democracy but they are a democracy walking in molasses.
Some people are half-socialist states. They want to share what you have
but never have anything to share with you. Some share all they have but
never want to take anything. Yes, this is a rare nation state but they
do exist. They're usually people trying to assuage guilt complexes by
self-flagellation and finding someone to dominate them.
Some people are Nazi states. They love to make fiery Hitlerian speeches
to make themselves appear right and everyone else to be wrong, and then
find reasons to gas and incinerate those who can't find a way to get
away from them.
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A healthy state of democracy is a person with balanced legislative,
executive and judicial aspects of their being. They can talk and listen
but when the time comes for a decision, they are able to make one that
is sane and fair to all. And after they make it, their judicial mind
evaluates the way it plays out in their experience. Then they fine-tune
it.
Evaluate yourself and a few of the people you know as "nation
states." It's a good concept to bring us to a better
self-understanding and to protect us from Taliban-type characters.
IN THE NAME OF GOD
I once bought a little book with a title something like "The 1700
Names of God." It really shook me up to know there were that many
names for the Creator.
In my culture, it was pretty much "Father, Son and Holy
Ghost." I had often wondered why, if we are made in the image of
God, that no one in my world ever called God "Mother." After
all, it takes a father and a mother to make a son. I was pleased to
learn that the Catholics revere Mary as the "Mother of God."
And that the Christian Scientists pray to "Mother Father God."
I like Daya Mata, head of the Self Realization Fellowship, and agree
with her statement that "the kind of thought with which you clothe
the Infinite should be a concept that rouses devotion in you."
We should not limit ourselves to the few names for God we were raised
with. Even in our Bible, there are hundreds of names and synonyms for
God. If you had a harsh father, it will never feel good to you to think
of God as "Father" alone. Open yourself to more of the
infinite ways of relating to the Infinite.
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